


A Light To Guide You Home

by TheSkyIsMyHome



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Found Family, M/M, Slow Burn, very loosely based on x-men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 77,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27904318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSkyIsMyHome/pseuds/TheSkyIsMyHome
Summary: In a world that despises mutants, Ace lives purely to protect his little brother.Until the flames inside him find their perfect match and opposite, and he doesn't know what to feel anymore.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace
Comments: 106
Kudos: 189





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> after ten years of loving one piece, guess it's finally time to publish a fic for it~
> 
> in case you're wondering about me not using archive warnings: I wasn't sure whether the violence at the end of the chapter qualifies as a graphic depiction. people die, but it's no main characters. I can assure you none of the other three archive warnings apply to this fic  
> otherwise I can only warn for ace' typical brand of self-hatred, and probably some swearing
> 
> if you're okay with all that, I hope you enjoy reading!

The bar was decently filled that night, but more than a little noisy as it was getting later and later, and more and more alcohol flowed down the throats of the patrons. Ace didn’t know how late exactly it was, but definitely too late for a ten-year-old like him to still be up and working.

Regardless, he followed the patrons’ calls for another round without saying anything. He was lucky Makino employed him at all, and even Luffy along with him. Someone had to actually work to make sure she didn’t change her mind on that, and Luffy wouldn’t be the one to do it. At least today he wasn’t just goofing off, he was keeping Shanks entertained, that had to count for something.

Not that Ace really knew anything much about Shanks, but he was a regular who seemed to have a lot of money and rarely caused any trouble, and the longer he stayed the more he would be drinking and the more rounds for all his friends he would be giving out. And he never really got violent, even when drunk, so Luffy was somewhat safe with him.

Just as Ace thought that, he saw Shanks pick Luffy up by his legs, holding him upside down. Shanks was laughing even as Luffy struggled, so Ace quickly placed the order he was carrying on the nearest table to make his way over to them and put a stop to whatever was happening now.

He stopped dead in his tracks when Luffy faceplanted on the floor, his ankles still safely in Shanks’ hands. As his legs retracted again like they were made of rubber, Luffy looked more confused than anyone, and even Shanks was stunned into silence for a moment before he broke out laughing. Ace could only feel his heart sink.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to Luffy. To Ace, maybe, he wouldn’t be surprised if he got his shitty father’s monster genes. But Luffy was supposed to be safe. Purely human. Not a single drop of dirty mutant blood in the bloodline of Monkey D. Garp, hero of the Mutant Agency for Registration, Internment, Naturalization and Extermination.

But as Luffy curiously pulled at his rubbery cheeks, Ace knew he couldn’t run from this. He had to keep Luffy safe at all costs. They couldn’t live with Dadan anymore now, or anywhere Gramps might find them. Garp could never find out about this, and Luffy could never find out why. Ace would have to go get Sabo, and with their combined savings they might be able to find an apartment in a worse part of town, where nobody would care about three children living on their own. They’d have to find new jobs, because at least Dadan knew about the ones they currently had, and she’d never been one to stay strong against threats from Garp.

Ace’ mind was racing the rest of the evening, formulating as much of an escape plan as he could while his body mechanically kept working. At least Shanks hadn’t made a commotion about finding out Luffy was a mutant, which meant there were few witnesses, and now, as the bar was closing, both he and Luffy were happily asleep at the counter.

It gave Ace time to talk to Makino, who gave him a sad smile when he announced he and Luffy weren’t coming back to work tomorrow. She understood Luffy wouldn’t be safe here anymore. She pressed a kiss to Ace’ forehead, and a small pouch with money into his hand before he could complain. “Take good care of your little brother for me, alright?” Ace nodded and bowed politely, just as she’d taught him.

“What, you’re not coming back? I won’t get to see my cute little Luffy anymore when I come here?” Shanks had chosen the worst possible moment to wake up. Great. Ace grimaced. Shanks was just a regular at the bar who got drunk way too often, but sometimes Ace couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to him, no matter how silly he acted.

“We’re moving.” Better to give out as little information as possible. “Come on, Luffy, shift’s over, we’re going home.” Ace hit his sleeping brother over the head none too gently, but Luffy didn’t seem to be bothered at all. He blearily blinked the sleep away, totally clueless.

“Hey, that’s unfair,” Shanks whined like a little kid, “at least let me say goodbye.”

Luffy, now a little more awake, looked confused between Ace and Shanks. “Say goodbye?” he repeated, making Ace grit his teeth.

But Shanks smiled at Luffy. “It seems like we won’t be seeing each other for a while, my friend. Your life is bound to become very exciting from now on, I’m sure.”

Ace could feel anger sizzling under his skin like fire. Shanks was an adult, he had to know ‘exciting’ wasn’t the word to use when trying to hide a mutant child from the ever present and watchful marines. Especially considering they had no adult support in this.

But Luffy didn’t understand anything. “Huh? Why can’t I see you again, Shanks? I don’t wanna say goodbye!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll definitely see each other again.” Still smiling, Shanks took the straw hat he was always wearing and placed it on Luffy’s head instead. “Promise me you’ll grow up big and strong, and never forget to be proud of who you are, and when you find me again, you can give me back this hat. It’s my favourite, so take good care of it, alright?”

Luffy nodded, clearly trying to hold back tears, and watched silently as Shanks stumbled out of the bar. Really, Ace didn’t know what to think of the guy. Was he really stupid or really smart? Honest or hiding a bunch of stuff? Usually Ace could tell easily, but not with Shanks. Perhaps it was better they wouldn’t be seeing him again, even if Luffy would be sad.

Giving one last wave to Makino, Ace led Luffy out of the bar. They’d have to go back home one more time tonight, even if just to meet up with Sabo, who was working at a slightly fancy restaurant thanks to his weirdly good manners that Ace and Luffy just couldn’t emulate no matter how hard they tried. At least Gramps had been home two weeks ago, meaning it was terribly unlikely he’d be there. Running away with him there would be impossible, as would keeping Luffy’s new abilities a secret from him. Not that Garp was particularly great at detecting lies, but Luffy was particularly bad at lying and keeping secrets.

But they were in luck. Garp was nowhere to be seen, Dadan was asleep, and Luffy was too immediately after Ace forced him to brush his teeth, meaning he could explain the situation to Sabo in peace and the two of them could make all the necessary preparations.

They didn’t sleep much that night, but they were ready to go at the break of dawn. There wasn’t any point in bringing anything but the bare necessities and all their money, and they left without waking Dadan. Ace simply left her a note.

“The genes of my trash father finally caught up to me, so I’m leaving. Sabo wanted to come with me, and Luffy didn’t really get it but he still wanted to come, so all three of us will be staying together. Thanks for everything, Dadan. Don’t look for us. -Ace”

It wasn’t the truth, but it was better that way. Garp would still be mad, and he’d still go looking for them, but nobody from the marines except Garp would actually be looking for Luffy. He’d be safer. And, while it was a stupid notion, Luffy didn’t deserve to be hated by his own grandfather, even if he didn’t know about it either way. It was better if Garp directed all his hate at Ace, the demon child he foolishly took in who stole his cute grandson away.

It did mean Ace had to lie to Luffy, which he didn’t like doing, but it was still easier to tell Luffy he and Sabo had decided to become independent and live on their own because ten was totally old enough for that, compared to telling him his grandfather wanted to put him into an internment camp so he could grow up to be grateful to be allowed to live as a second-class citizen instead of just being killed like those evil mutants who don’t follow the laws humans set for them.

Ace knew exactly what it felt like to have that kind of self-hatred instilled into yourself from a young age, and he’d rather die before letting Luffy experience that.

He just had to make sure Garp would never find Luffy. Not the easiest task, but not impossible. After all, the city was big. Really, really big. Ace wasn’t smart enough to know how many people a billion really were, but he knew it was a lot. And he knew he didn’t even live close to the center of the city, yet climbing to any roof still would only show more sprawling rooftops until the horizon in any direction.

They walked for a few hours, always towards the rising sun – east, away from the center, easy to remember as they were in East Blue, so east always meant further out – until they reached a part of town that looked bad enough for nobody to care too much about three orphan boys out on their own, but not so bad they’d get killed just for walking around.

Sabo, the actual miracle worker, even managed to get them an apartment for rent at a price they could hope to pay for a while, assuming they found jobs with similar or even slightly worse pay than they had before. The landlord clearly seemed to be incredibly disinterested in anything regarding them except their money, which was perfect.

Not that the apartment was big or had anything much in it, but it was a roof, a place to hide, and it did have a functioning heater and toilet, who cared if they had to get a futon for it or that there were weird stains on the walls?

Luffy surely not, he was bouncing around excitedly all day as they settled in, making their very first meal in their own apartment over a tiny portable stove they’d gotten second-hand.

It was already getting dark as they were done, so they decided to start job hunting the next day. Just lazing around on their one big futon together and dreaming of all the stuff they could do now that no annoying grown-up was there to nag them was fine for the first night of their new life.

Only Luffy could never stay still for too long, soon he jumped up and ran over to their singular window, excitedly pointing at the sky outside. “Ace, Sabo, look! There’s a giant bird there and it’s burning!”

Curious, Ace got up as well, and indeed, there was a giant bird that looked like it was made of blue flames, flying under the dark cover of cloud and smoke that shrouded the city from the natural light of the moon.

“That’s the phoenix,” Sabo supplied helpfully, “it’s the protector of the city. Rumours say if you’re in trouble, it’ll descend from the sky and save you, no matter what. It fights for everyone who can’t fight for themselves and has nobody to protect them.”

“So cool~” Luffy’s eyes were filled with sparkles as he watched the distant light.

Of course, Ace knew that wasn’t true. Rumours were just rumours. There was no way an actual, real phoenix with magical powers existed. It was probably just a mutant, and even if his goal was actually to help the weak, there was no way he could save everyone. There were just too many people. Too many bad things happening all at once in this giant, horrible, endless city.

Still, Ace couldn’t tear his eyes away from the enchanting flames dancing in the otherwise dark sky, as his entire being was filled with a fascination he’d never felt before. Would the phoenix come and save even a child like him, he had to wonder?

* * *

Eight years later, Ace was pretty sure the answer to that question was a resounding no. Nobody had saved them when their landlord threw them out and called the marines after realizing Luffy was a mutant. Nobody saved them when police from the inner districts showed up to take Sabo away, to a home he wanted to avoid like nothing else. Nobody saved them from being robbed, or from losing their jobs, or from being beaten up by drunk or angry idiots looking for easy targets.

Ace had no time to wait for someone to save him, he had to take care of Luffy all by himself since it didn’t seem like Sabo could ever return to them. At least Luffy had gotten much stronger and could defend himself these days most of the time, but he still could never stay out of trouble for long. Ace had long since given up on keeping it a true secret that Luffy was a mutant. It was just impossible. Everything Luffy did, the way he moved, ate, smiled, it was all intrinsically tied to him being made of rubber, and Ace couldn’t bring himself to even try and train that out of him. There was nothing wrong with the way Luffy was, after all.

So Ace grit his teeth and forced the fire under his skin down as he handed over almost all the money he’d made that month to Buggy. Fighting wouldn’t help. Buggy was an asshole, he asked for way too much money for the shitty apartment and practically non-existent protection he offered, but he was a free mutant. If there was one thing that topped his love for money, it was his hatred for the marines. He’d never sell out Luffy.

For the past five years, despite Luffy’s aversion to subtlety, no marine had found them. Ace didn’t need to know how an idiot like Buggy managed to pull that off, he’d keep paying money for it for as long as it worked and not ask any questions.

As long as Luffy was safe, Ace would swallow any complaints he had. With Luffy happy and at his side, Ace could drown out all the thoughts he didn’t want to think. Like how he shouldn’t be alive, how much Sabo was probably suffering wherever he was right now, how he couldn’t help but feel the fire inside of him would one day burst out and destroy him and the entire city with him, including everyone he held dear. Same old, same old.

Where was Luffy, anyway? He hadn’t been home this morning when Ace woke up, but that hadn’t worried him all that much. These days, Luffy went off to meet his friends pretty often, but they seemed like nice kids the one time Ace met them, and Luffy even brought back money from their “adventures” somewhat regularly, so there was no reason to complain. A small-time thief wasn’t exactly what Ace had hoped Luffy would grow up to be, but it was a decently lucrative and safe career choice given the circumstances, so whatever. Ace certainly didn’t make enough money on his own to feed Luffy and pay Buggy simultaneously.

As he trudged out into the chilly and depressing February air, Ace’ mind wandered to his stomach. It had been a few hours since breakfast, he definitely needed to eat something before he went to work later. But should he be responsible and get cheap canned food to cook at home or go splurge his leftover money this month on the one steakhouse that actually served really delicious meat around this part of town? Decisions, decisions…

His feet took him in the direction of the steakhouse without his brain ever consciously agreeing, but a series of gunshots rang loudly in his ears before he could reach it, so it didn’t matter either way.

Ace was immediately on high alert. Guns weren’t exactly uncommon here, but that had been a lot of them fired all at once. It was neither the time nor the place for gang wars, really, which only left the more dreadful option.

While any sane person would run in the opposite direction, Ace sprinted towards the gunfire as fast as he could, coming to a skittering halt half a street down and around one corner. It was just as he feared. In fact, it was _worse_.

He’d expected the marines. Of course it was them. They were here to take some poor mutant who’d been discovered, to either kill them or drag them off to an internment camp. It happened, no matter how much Ace wished it didn’t.

The real problem was, the mutant they were trying to shoot was Luffy.

Which, to be fair, did nothing to him. Luffy’s rubbery body deflected the bullets straight back, so he was just fine. For now, at least. It would’ve been nice if the marines had panicked over this fact, but instead they’d switched to tasers, and once those also proved useless against rubber, they pulled out knives which would be able to cut and kill Luffy if they managed to get a decent enough strike in.

For a few moments that felt like half an eternity, Ace could only watch as the marines crowded closer around Luffy even as they kept getting punched in the face pretty hard. But then he regained control over his limbs and thoughts, pulling out the knife he always carried and jumping straight into the crowd as he rammed it into the back of a marine with no warning.

He knew how to fight. Of course he did. Any kid who grew up here knew how to fight, because any that didn’t just ended up dying. With the marines not using their guns and tasers due to Luffy’s powers, Ace had a chance. He’d be powerless against those kinds of weapons, but he knew how to avoid the slash of a pocket knife.

It wasn’t that these marines were stronger than him. These weren’t elite soldiers. But there were just too many of them. Even as some turned around to fight off Ace, Luffy was still surrounded, slowly accumulating small cuts all over his body.

Shit. Ace had to get to him. Why were there so many marines? Where had they come from so suddenly? This couldn’t just be a random patrol. Had someone sold Luffy out to them? Buggy? Unlikely. Luffy’s friends? Also unlikely. Maybe that new waiter at the steakhouse. He’d looked at Luffy with a disgusted look, but then it could’ve just been because of his lack of table manners…

“Ace!” Luffy’s voice, simultaneously panicked and relieved, shook Ace out of his thoughts. Right. No point dwelling on why this was happening. They could figure it out later.

“Don’t worry Luffy, I’ll get us out of here!” Not that Ace had any clue on how he would do that, but he had to, so his voice sounded sure, and Luffy clearly believed him.

Maybe that was a mistake. Ace couldn’t be sure if it had been inevitable, or if Luffy let his guard down because of the reassuring words, but right in that moment, a marine finally managed to get close enough to Luffy to ram a knife into his face, only missing his left eye by a tiny margin.

Ace saw red.

Both figuratively as his anger finally spilled over at these assholes hunting and hurting his little brother for stupid reasons, and literally as the entire world suddenly dissolved into fire.

It had been simmering under Ace’ skin for a long time, pretty much ever since he could remember. Now that it had finally broken out, it couldn’t be stopped. Ace barely even registered that the marines directly fighting him had been reduced to charred corpses. They deserved it, anyways.

They and everyone else. This entire city was rotten to the core, full of crime and hatred and misery. Nobody in it wanted Ace to exist, so maybe it was fitting Ace didn’t want them to exist either.

Ace could feel his limbs dissolve as he lost track of where they should be in the first place, anger and heat and bright red drowning out reality until everything but the sea of flames he created disappeared. A hell of his own making, preferable to the hell he had no control over.

But before he could lose his grip completely, blue flames appeared in front of him, cool and gentle and calming, and Ace could feel his body again as a pair of wings wrapped themselves around it.

“You need to calm down.” The voice right next to his ear took Ace by surprise. It sounded so unbothered. Whatever was happening right now was terrible, right? Everything was burning. The smell of death permeated the air. How had he gotten here again? He just wanted to destroy… right? Suddenly it felt like Ace had forgotten something really, really important in his rage. “Nobody will try to hurt you anymore,” the voice reassured him, “but if you don’t stop, you’ll end up burning the boy with the straw hat too.”

Luffy. Ace felt like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over his head. He couldn’t burn the city, Luffy lived here! Sabo still lived here somewhere too, probably. And Dadan. And Makino. Ace wasn’t the kind of monster that would burn them all. He wasn’t like that guy. The stupid fire needed to get back under his skin where it had been all his life, so it couldn’t make anyone but him miserable!

Somehow, that thought was enough. The fire didn’t want to come back, it wanted to keep burning and spread out ever further, Ace knew, but it returned to him, settled back into its old place without putting up a fight. Why, he didn’t understand, but he also didn’t care at the moment.

No, he only frantically tried to spot Luffy in the smoke and wreckage. There were so many dead bodies. So many. Some were still obviously wearing marine uniforms, but some were burned beyond recognition.

Bile rose in Ace’ throat. He’d done that. What if Luffy…?

But before Ace could finish that thought, he saw a small figure stumbling toward him. Burnt and bleeding and coughing from the smoke, Luffy still smiled his most precious smile the moment his gaze found Ace’s. Ace couldn’t help but smile back.

And then the world turned fuzzy and Ace could feel himself lose consciousness, but he didn’t hit the ground as he slumped forward, hitting something that felt strangely like a human chest instead.

As he was slowly lowered to the ground, Ace had the brain space left to try and figure out who was holding him, but his vision was getting blurry, all he could make out was something that vaguely looked like a pineapple.

Huh. Weird.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Normal days are a rarity for Marco as is, but this one still stands out, and he gets the feeling this is only the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with chapter 2, a week after the first one! does this mean there will be weekly updates? probably not  
> I hope y'all enjoy, I'm very grateful for the kudos and comments I received on the last chapter!

Marco’s day started off normal enough. Breakfast was delicious, because Thatch made it, and it was loud and chaotic, because most of his siblings were there, and that was just how they were. While Marco wasn’t exactly a morning person, he’d gotten used to it, and at this point would probably miss it if he ever lost it. Probably. Though he was pretty sure he could do without the gunshots Izou fired at Jozu for… some reason. Marco hadn’t paid any attention to their conversation. Whatever. He’d get involved once the guns were fired at someone who could actually be hurt by them.

The first few hours he spent taking stock of their medical supplies. They were running low on a few of the drugs they needed, but not lower than expected. As long as his supply run today went as it should, they were set for a while, and even if some problems cropped up, there was no immediate danger.

It was a little annoying that he had to get his supplies from small-time drug dealers spread out all over the city, but getting them all in one place would draw too much attention. Nobody cared about one more weirdo junkie, but god forbid someone ran an unlicensed hospital.

And since his powers were too flashy to not be tracked by the marines, he couldn’t even fly and had to take a car instead. Annoying. He could only hope nobody would try to steal or trash it while he was meeting with a dealer. It had happened before, even if he took one of the worse cars.

At first, it seemed like there wouldn’t be any major incidents, Marco got about halfway through all his regular dealers, getting most of what he wanted with little issue, but of course no day could go perfectly according to plan.

Marco didn’t immediately pay attention to the gunshots he heard in the distance while he checked the goods he got as well as he could without any equipment before handing over the money. Sure, this was East Blue, the most peaceful of the Blues, but he was decently far out, not even East Blue was truly peaceful all the way out here. If this were an area where the law applied normally, Marco wouldn’t be here in the first place.

But when the sky lit up with flames, Marco knew this was probably more than some local gang fight. At least worth checking out. Once the dealer had scurried away and Marco was sure nobody else was around to see him, he spread out his wings, letting the familiar flames engulf him completely and carry him up into the air towards the rapidly spreading fire.

Marco wasn’t exactly sure what he’d expected, but it wasn’t a bunch of dead marines lying in a big circle around a confused and panicked boy. The flames hadn’t directly reached the boy, not yet at least, but he had no way of escaping either. The smoke and heat were definitely getting to him, and with how close some of the burning marines were, it probably wouldn’t be long until the actual fire did, too.

It didn’t look like the boy was in any way in control of the flames. Marco quickly flew towards him, grabbing him carefully with his claws to carry him out of the immediate danger zone.

“No,” the boy croaked in protest immediately, voice clearly already rough from the smoke - Marco would have to get him home for treatment soon - “not me. You have to save Ace!”

Obviously, Marco didn’t have a single clue on who this Ace was, but he turned around to look at the fire again, and indeed there was another silhouette still standing in the fire. No, that wasn’t quite right. The silhouette was part of the fire. Spreading it out in waves and keeping it burning.

That must be the mutant who caused the fire, then. Ace. Marco set the boy down a little away from the fire and gave him a nod to indicate that he’d understood and make sure the boy remained where he was instead of charging back toward the fire. The boy was looking at him with wide, desperate eyes, arms tightly clutched around a straw hat to shield it from the flames. Did that hat look a little familiar…? Maybe, but Marco couldn’t place it right now and he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Like the fire that was still spreading. It wasn’t contained to the street anymore, a few of the surrounding houses were now burning too. Marco didn’t know how far Ace could spread it, but he wasn’t exactly keen on finding out.

He dropped down right in front of Ace, glad that his cool flames shielded him from the overwhelming heat emanating from Ace. From this close, he could tell pretty easily that the other mutant wasn’t totally in control of his powers right now. His body was practically purely fire by now, more force of nature than a person, and he barely even reacted to Marco’s presence.

Marco had to ground him somehow, so he wrapped his wings around him. A physical presence to remind him of reality. There was still some solid form there, and it only got more steady once Marco touched it. Good. He hadn’t lost him yet. Ace was still partially there.

That meant he could be reasoned with. Everything was still under control, no need for any extreme measures. Thank god. “You need to calm down.” It would be easier to help Ace if Marco knew him at all, but with the situation at hand, he could make some educated guesses on what had caused this mess and what could stop it. “Nobody will try to hurt you anymore, but if you don’t stop, you’ll end up burning the boy with the straw hat too.”

It worked. Better than even Marco expected. His wings were soon wrapped around a perfectly solid body, and Ace even called all the fire back into it, despite his sorry state. What an incredible power. Marco hadn’t seen a fire mutant like that in what, 20 years now? The thought sent a shiver down his spine.

But Ace suddenly slumped forward, and Marco had to focus on turning his arms back to their human form so he could hold him properly. He was clearly losing consciousness, so Marco laid him on the ground – properly like an unconscious person should be laid down, he was a doctor he wouldn’t let this guy die from choking on his own spit or something stupid like that.

So far, so good. All immediate danger averted. Now what?

“Ace!” The straw hat boy ran toward them, falling on his knees next to his unconscious… friend?

Right. Next step: Medical attention for these two. Preferably not in the middle of the street, where new marines might show up at any moment to check on the ones who didn’t respond to any of their calls anymore.

“He’s fine. Just unconscious. Probably overexerted himself using all that power at once. You’re worse off, I’d say. All those cuts need to be cleaned and the one on your face looks like it needs to be stitched. And while the burns you have look like they’re not too serious, they could still scar if they’re not treated properly. I’ve got a car, I’ll bring you to a hospital.”

“I have bandages at home, I don’t need to go to a hospital.”

“Listen, kid, bandages won’t do anything against all the smoke you inhaled, that’s seriously dangerous.”

“I feel fine! Oh, and you can’t take Ace either. We’re not going!” The straw hat boy now protectively placed himself between Marco and Ace, a defiant look on his face. “It’s nice that you saved us, but we’ll be fine on our own.”

No, they definitely wouldn’t be. Even if they’d managed to hide until now – his aversion to hospitals, as well as having been the one surrounded by marines earlier made it pretty clear to Marco that the straw hat boy was a mutant too, even if Marco hadn’t seen him use any sort of power – they were hurt, and there’d be a giant investigation into this incident. No mutant would be safe around these parts for a while.

It would probably be easiest to just knock the straw hat boy out too, but that seemed a little harsh. Arguing this out with him might take too long though. Even if it wasn’t the marines, someone was bound to show up to see what had happened here pretty soon, and Marco didn’t want to be around for that.

“Alright, will you at least let me take him somewhere that’s a little safer? Like… a rooftop close by? I’ll take you, too, of course. I just don’t think any of us should be here when someone shows up to ask who did all this.”

Straw hat boy at least seemed to agree with the last sentence. He fixated Marco with a gaze that seemed way too intense for how young he looked, but eventually he nodded. Marco answered with a grateful smile, then turned back into his phoenix form. Carrying an unconscious person wasn’t exactly easy when you had no hands, but Marco had to carry his injured siblings away from battle more often than he liked, so he didn’t really have a problem carrying Ace to a rooftop of a non-burnt house, conveniently in the direction of his car.

He really meant to pick up the straw hat boy next, but before he could go back to get him, a pair of hands appeared on the fence around the rooftop, and Marco barely had a second to see that the straw hat boy had stretched his arms impossibly long before he shot up to the rooftop like a rocket. Yup, definitely a mutant.

The poor boy overshot his goal a little, rolling over the rooftop and crashing into the fence on the other side. The doctor in Marco was screaming. He was opening his wounds more, and getting dirt into them to boot! He shouldn’t be moving around this much in the first place! But the whole ordeal didn’t get more than a laugh out of the boy, so Marco didn’t say anything. For now. He just watched as the boy scurried back to sit next to Ace again.

Marco sat down at Ace’ other side. “Alright. I still think both of you need medical attention, so let’s make this quick. I’m Marco, I work for Whitebeard, and I have no clue what happened there before I showed up, I was only around because I was buying medicine for the hospital I run. It would be great if you could tell me what happened, and if you have any questions or complaints, now’s the time.”

It wasn’t, really, they should hurry away from here, but in the long run, gaining the boy’s trust would be more important. They couldn’t help him or Ace without their trust.

“I’m Luffy,” the boy answered, “the marines were looking for me, but I don’t know who told them about me. Ace was just trying to help me. There were so many of them, but Ace said he’d save me, so he did! He’s not even a mutant like me, so I have no idea how he did all that fire stuff, but it was really cool!”

No, Marco was pretty sure Ace was, in fact, a mutant. But Luffy was right that this was weird. Mutant powers usually showed themselves either at birth, or sometime between ages five and fifteen. If you didn’t show any signs of mutant powers by the time you were done with the majority of puberty, it was pretty safe to say you just didn’t have any. Ace looked more around 17 to Marco. But it would explain why he’d lost control of his powers if it was his first time using them. But then that still contrasted with the ease that Ace called the fire back with…

“Anyway, then you showed up,” Luffy continued, not giving Marco more time to think. “You’re that phoenix that flies around at night sometimes, right? Sabo told me about you. But you’re also a guy with weird hair. Is it because you’re a mutant? But how can you run a hospital then? Hospitals are for humans, not mutants. My complaint is I’m hungry! Oh, and I almost forgot to ask, who’s this Whitebeard guy?”

Once Luffy started, he really started talking, at an insane tempo and without really much connection between his sentences, making it hard to follow. Marco just latched onto the last sentence.

“You don’t know who Whitebeard is?” He was so surprised, Marco barely even felt offended. There were still people, mutants even, who’d never heard of Whitebeard?

“No.”

“Uh, well, basically, he’s a really cool and powerful mutant, and he’s really nice too, he helps out as many mutants as he can. He helped me too when I was a kid, without him I could’ve never become a doctor and run my little hospital for mutants.” Was that a good explanation? Probably not, but Luffy seemed like he got it. “Oh, right, almost forgot, you’re hungry. How about if you let me take you two to my hospital, I’ll call ahead and tell my brother Thatch to have a meal ready for you? It can be whatever you want, and he’s a really good cook.”

Luffy started drooling, even though he tried to keep a serious face, and Marco knew he had him. “Alright,” Luffy agreed with a nod, “I’ll take your offer. But I’m always ready to beat you up if you try to hurt Ace. I’m strong!”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

But it was good Luffy had agreed somewhat quickly. Marco could hear a few cars in the distance, which probably meant more marines were on their way. They needed to go before they arrived on the scene.

Thankfully, the fire had scared people away, so Marco’s car was still just fine, and with a little help from Luffy, he got Ace into the backseat without any problems. Marco grimaced a bit when Luffy climbed into the passenger seat. Some of his cuts were still bleeding, though not enough to be worrying in a medical sense, it would be a pain to get the blood stains out of the car seat. But Marco didn’t really have anything with him, not even a first aid kit. All he could do was hand Luffy a tissue to at least stop the bleeding from the deep cut on his face.

To prove to Luffy he wasn’t hiding anything and intended on keeping all his promises, he called home as soon as he started driving, over the car’s loudspeaker.

“Marco?” Haruta’s voice sounded worried on the other end. “You shouldn’t be done yet, did something go wrong? Do you need help?”

“I’m fine. But I need you to send someone else to run the rest of the errands in West and North Blue. I’m coming back home.”

“Sure, no problem. I’ll send Curiel, he’s just been lazing around all day, annoying the hell out of me.” There was a muffled noise in the background that did in fact sound like a disgruntled Curiel, so Marco didn’t doubt Haruta’s words. “Still, you usually don’t let anyone else pick up medical supplies. What happened?”

“I picked up two mutants who were fighting some marines. They’re injured, so I’m bringing them with me. Tell Deuce to have some oxygen ready, and a stretcher and bed for someone unconscious.”

There were tapping sounds on the other end, and Marco knew Haruta had switched into business mode completely. “Got it. Anyone see you?”

“Nope, by the time I got there, all the marines were already dead, and we got away before anyone else arrived. No need to tell anyone we were involved. A couple houses got burned though, so you’ll definitely hear about it.”

The marines weren’t stupid, they’d realize their men didn’t just die in a random fire in the middle of the street, of course a mutant with fire powers was involved. That would raise so many red flags, they might not even care about the consequences and attack. Even after all this time, there was still one name they feared more than Whitebeard, and they’d do anything to get rid of that legacy, even if they didn’t know if there was any connection. It was better if nobody else knew about Ace for now. Even Shanks might come asking questions, despite the fact that he usually didn’t care if Whitebeard picked up mutant kids in his territory. That could wait at least until they had some answers to those questions, hopefully.

“Sure, sounds like a headache, so we know nothing. Anything else?”

“I promised the one that’s not unconscious food.”

“Yeah,” Luffy chimed in, “I want meat! And it needs to be a lot! I’m hungry! Ace will be hungry too when he wakes up.”

Marco chuckled. “You heard it. Tell Thatch a very hungry boy is on his way, and he’s only expecting the best. I vouched for his food, so he better not disappoint.”

“Alright, I’ll tell him it’s a matter of pride. He’ll deliver for sure. You can look forward to it, young boy.”

Luffy cheered, but ended up coughing at the end. So he was feeling the effects of the smoke, after all. After saying his goodbyes to Haruta, Marco hung up and sped up the car as much as he could in this area. He’d used small streets on the way here, but getting all the way back to South Blue would take too long that way, so he’d have to take the gamble and use the highway. At least he knew the regular marine controls were scheduled somewhere else today, but you never knew when they did random patrols. Marco had fake papers, but his face might get recognized anyway, and he doubted Luffy or Ace had any papers at all.

During the drive, Luffy was torn between looking out of the window to look at the city flying by, and worryingly looking back to Ace. While Marco wouldn’t have minded silence, he also didn’t mind answering Luffy’s questions about his family. At least this way he found out the two boys weren’t just friends, they were brothers. Not by blood, but Marco was the last person to care about blood relations.

Even though Luffy had seemed like he didn’t trust strangers easily at first, he got over it very quickly, and was soon telling stories about himself and Ace freely. That way, the drive went by quickly, and Marco pulled into the giant estate that he called home before he knew it.

Luffy was understandably impressed, and he looked torn between going to explore, staying with Ace, and asking for directions to the kitchen.

But Marco dragged him into the small hospital building off to the side, telling him Thatch wouldn’t appreciate it if Luffy bled into the food he prepared. While not happy, Luffy let himself be stitched up and bandaged, and Marco finally got him on some oxygen to get rid of the residual smoke in his lungs.

Though the cut underneath the eye would probably scar, Marco was happy to see Luffy was very likely to make a full recovery quickly with no lasting damages. He already seemed perfectly chipper again when Thatch showed up with the promised meat. And also some potatoes and vegetables, because just meat wasn’t a healthy meal, but Luffy gulped down everything indiscriminately without complaining, so that had probably been the right call. He only left a single piece of meat on his plate, setting it on Ace’ bedside table, clearly meant for his brother to eat when he woke up.

Luffy was thin, but not worryingly so, so if the boy ate as much as he did because he was starving, it had to have been a recent thing, not something permanent.

Once sated, Luffy pulled a chair up to his brother’s bed, clearly intent on watching over him. Marco didn’t mind, this was better than Luffy trying to run around out of his sight somewhere. It would be better still if he went to lay down too, but Marco knew all too well that was a fight he probably couldn’t win, and not even one he really had any right to fight, considering he just didn’t sleep at all whenever one of his siblings got hurt.

He busied himself with starting files for the two brothers, and then checking the drugs he bought for any unwanted bullshit the dealers might have put in there to stretch them. They thankfully didn’t have any other patients right now that required urgent care, so Marco was fine leaving them to Deuce and the nurses.

Only when it was time for his daily check-up of Pops did he leave the brothers alone, and even then he told Liz to keep an eye on them, just in case. Marco used the opportunity to fill in Pops on everything that happened.

“According to his brother, Ace is 18, so it’s not really possible there’s any connection, but the marines don’t know that, and even if they did, I doubt it’d stop them from panicking, so we should be careful,” Marco finished his assessment, and Whitebeard nodded in agreement.

“They got burned once, they don’t want to let it happen again. But whether or not there is any connection, the boy is just a boy. He needs help, so we’ll help him, just like anyone else. That’s the most important thing right now.”

“Of course, Pops.” Marco couldn’t help the smile on his face. He really had the best father in the world, and he was sure Ace and Luffy would agree once they met him. “I’ll stay with him until he wakes up, and I’ll let you know if something happens. You’re looking good tonight, but that still doesn’t mean you can drink sake, got it?”

Pops laughed, a quiet, deep rumble, filled with affection for his first son. “Of course, Marco,” he replied in the most dishonest way possible. Marco just sighed. That was another battle he’d never win, but he’d keep trying anyway.

When Marco returned to the brothers’ hospital room, nothing had changed, Luffy was still sitting exactly where he’d been the entire time, staring at Ace and the machines he was hooked up to that were keeping track of his vitals. It was getting dark outside, and the boy looked small and lost between the long shadows the last rays of sunlight were casting through the window.

“Will he be alright?” Luffy didn’t turn around when he asked, but Marco could hear the uncertainty in his voice, he didn’t need to see Luffy’s face.

“He will.” Marco placed a hand on Luffy’s head, ruffling his hair a little. “He was unconscious earlier, but now he’s just sleeping. I expect him to wake up tomorrow morning, maybe even during the night. He just exhausted himself a little to save you. It’s a bad habit that just comes with being an older brother.”

When Luffy answered, Marco didn’t need to see the smile on his face to know it was there. “Ace is the best big brother.”

After that, it didn’t take long for Luffy to fall asleep, softly snoring away. Marco carefully picked him up and carried him over to the bed on the opposite side of the room, to make sure he’d get a good night’s sleep.

Marco turned on a small lamp, put on his glasses, and busied himself with paperwork for the rest of the evening. Eventually, Curiel turned up – much later than Marco would have been if he’d done the rest of the supply run, but at least he’d gotten everything they needed. As long as all the meds were what they were supposed to be, Marco could stop worrying about stocks for a little while.

Neither of the brothers stirred the entire time. Ace’ vitals were stable as well. Just as Marco considered going to sleep himself, he could see a flicker of light from Ace’ bed.

Furrowing his brows, Marco went over to check on him. Ace was clutching his chest with one arm, perfectly illuminated by the little flame dancing on his hand. His face was scrunched up, his heartbeat a little faster than it should be, and Marco could only conclude that Ace was having a nightmare.

This was a problem. Right now the fire was just on his arm, but it could spread easily, to the blanket, or the curtains, or anything, really. And with Ace asleep, he couldn’t call it back either.

Instinctively, Marco just reached out, smothering the flame with his hand. Blue flames sparked up immediately to protect him from the burn, encircling Ace’s fire. The blue didn’t mix with the orange, but it danced around it, cooling it down and coaxing it back into Ace’s body.

Marco could only watch in fascination. He obviously knew his flames weren’t normal fire, and he knew they healed him automatically without him calling for them, but something like this, where it looked like they reacted to someone else’s power on their own, had never happened before.

Too bad he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Whatever nightmare Ace was having clearly wasn’t over, and just as Marco retracted his hand, Ace’ entire upper body caught fire.

Shit. Marco threw the blanket off of him as fast as he could, and pulled Ace up from the bed so his back was resting against Marco’s chest, not touching the bed in any way.

This time, it took considerably longer for the fire to retreat, even with Marco’s own flames there to keep it in check. When it finally did, Marco breathed a sigh of relief. Surprisingly enough, Ace had slept through the entire ordeal without waking up, and – as a quick look over his shoulder to the other bed in the room confirmed – so had Luffy.

But this was a problem. Marco didn’t necessarily _need_ to sleep, per se, but he still should. Still might accidentally fall asleep even if he tried to stay awake, too. Just leaving Ace like this would be too dangerous, a fire in the hospital would be a disaster that Marco just couldn’t risk.

He didn’t really have a choice, did he? With a heavy heart, Marco placed Ace back down on the bed and went over to the storage closet to get a power suppressor. The collars were marine technology, and Marco hated using them, especially without getting consent from the patient first, but sometimes it was just necessary. Like right now.

When Marco got back to Ace, his arm was already on fire again, and Marco knew there wasn’t really any other way. He gently lifted Ace up again to tighten the heavy steel collar around his neck.

The flames flickered out the moment the collar clicked shut, leaving only the dim, artificial light of Marco’s reading lamp.

He gently pushed a sweaty strand of hair out of Ace’ face, murmuring a quiet “sorry” to the sleeping boy.

Hopefully Ace would understand when Marco explained everything to him tomorrow morning.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace wakes up to some unfortunate revelations. But at least there's food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> took me a bit longer to get this chapter done, but it's also a bit longer so I guess that's how it works
> 
> starting from this chapter, I needed a couple kids that were with the whitebeards due to the nature of the au, and since I didn't feel like making a bunch of ocs, expect to see some kids entirely unaffiliated with the whitebeards in canon to just be part of the family in this fic
> 
> I hope you enjoy, and thanks to everyone who left a kudo or even a comment on this fic so far! you guys are the best!

Ace woke up slowly, feeling sluggish and disoriented. He didn’t remember going to bed and falling asleep. As he blinked against the blinding sunlight, it started to dawn on him that he wasn’t home. This bed was way too soft. “Luffy?” There was no response to his groggily asked question, other than some mildly annoying beeping, so Ace forced his eyes to open even if the light hurt them a little.

Yeah. He had no idea where he was, even as he took in his surroundings. There was another bed on the other side of the room, and it looked like someone had slept in it, but it was empty now. There was a desk, a cupboard, some windows. All of it was perfectly clean, and it didn’t look old, or broken. Definitely not a place Ace would ever go to.

Shit, what happened? He needed to remember. Ace tried to sit up, and finally noticed there was something weird on his finger, connected to some machine Ace couldn’t place. He ripped it off without thinking, which changed the mildly annoying beeping to a steadily annoying tone. Whatever, he wouldn’t be staying here. He needed to figure out where he was, and find Luffy.

Why was he feeling so weak? His brain conjured images of fire and a pineapple, but that wasn’t really helping him at all.

Finally his eyes found a plate with a single piece of meat on it next to his bed, and he figured his stomach was definitely empty, so he reached out to grab it.

His shoulder bumped against something as he moved his arm, and Ace stopped mid-motion. There was something around his neck. Slowly, Ace pulled his hand back to feel it, carefully sliding his fingers over what could only be the cold, hard surface of a metal collar.

A shiver ran down Ace’s back as icy dread settled in his stomach, and for the first time in his life he wished he could feel that horrible fire burning under his skin, but nothing.

Marines. He’d been fighting marines because Luffy had been attacked! Then everything had been fire, until the blue, gentler fire had shown up, and then- Ace didn’t know what happened after that, but more marines must’ve shown up.

He could only hope Luffy had gotten away, though knowing his brother, that idiot wouldn’t have left Ace behind, no matter how often Ace told him beforehand to do just that if the marines ever found them.

If the marines hurt his little brother, they’d be in for a nasty surprise. Ace knew better than to try and take off the collar – those fuckers exploded if you tried – but that didn’t mean he had to sit around and wait for someone to come find him. He quickly shoved the meat on the bedside table into his mouth – not enough, but better than fighting on a totally empty stomach.

Because he would be fighting. This clearly wasn’t a prison, so it had to be a re-education camp. Those _looked_ nice, but they were more sinister than an outright prison in a way. Luring you in with their normal exterior, telling you you’d get help, you could work an honest job, be accepted by society, live a safe life, everything you ever wanted… if only you throw away your freedom and follow all the rules the government set for you. Be grateful for the collar, it’s a generous gift that stops you from being a monster.

Ace would rather die than live here, but currently he couldn’t do that, he had to find Luffy first and figure out how to get him, or if possible both of them, away from here.

Just as Ace was walking towards the door to hopefully sneak out, it opened and a man in a lab coat carrying a clipboard entered, smiling as he saw Ace standing in the middle of the room. “Oh, you’re awake-“

Ace didn’t let him finish the sentence. Strike first, ask questions when you have the upper hand, that had always worked for him. With as much force as he could muster, Ace threw himself against the guy, slamming him against the wall. With his right hand, he grabbed the guy’s left and pinned it against the wall, while he pressed his left arm against the guy’s throat, hard enough to choke him.

“Tell me where Luffy is,” he snarled, a clear threat if his attack hadn’t been obvious enough.

The guy still looked more surprised instead of scared, much to Ace’s chagrin. “Kitchen,” the guy wheezed out, and really all Ace needed was for him to comply, so that was fine. “Brought… breakfast, but… wasn’t enough.”

Even as the guy struggled to speak with almost no air, he said enough for Ace to know they really did catch Luffy too. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Luffy trusted so easily, he’d fall for the marine’s lies for sure. They needed to leave _fast_.

Ace pressed into the guy’s throat harder. “Listen well, now, you clearly thought I could be contained with just this collar, but you were wrong, I don’t need my powers to fight, I can kill you all easily even with the collar, so if you want to live, you’ll give me the key for it, got it?”

“No… key,” the guy choked out.

Barely even able to speak, but still not ready to cooperate, huh? Ace pressed into his throat even harder, hopefully cutting off the last oxygen he was getting. “That wasn’t a question.”

Still, no matter how hard Ace tried, there was no fear in the eyes directly across from his own. All he could see was slight annoyance. What the fuck was wrong with this guy?

Ace heard a clattering noise without a warning, and looked down startled to see the clipboard on the ground.

A mistake. Before Ace could realize what was happening, he felt a hand at the back of his neck, clearly fumbling with the opening mechanism of the collar. Panic froze his limbs as a loud click echoed through the silent room. Was this guy insane? At this range, the explosion from the collar would kill both of them!

But it didn’t. The collar fell off, landing on top of the clipboard, once again making a loud noise, but nothing else.

A few seconds passed, with neither of them moving. Ace finally moved his arm back a little, giving the guy in front of him some room to breathe and speak. “Explain,” he demanded.

The guy had the gall to smile at him, as if they were just having a friendly conversation and Ace wasn’t still on the fence on whether or not to kill him. Even if the collar wasn’t dangerous, there was definitely something wrong in this guy’s brain. “We modified the collar from the ones the marines use. It’s purely for medical purposes. You were asleep and wouldn’t wake up, but you were burning, and I couldn’t let you burn down the hospital.”

Burning? In his sleep? That had never happened before, but then, he’d never used his powers before either… And he did vaguely remember dreaming of flames… God, that would suck if that kept happening. But he had to focus on the immediately important parts first. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“Me and my siblings. My name is Marco, I work for Whitebeard, he’s a mutant who-“

“I know who Whitebeard is,” Ace interrupted Marco, “how stupid do you think I am? Why would I believe you’re with him when you use marine technology?”

Marco looked amused somehow. “Your brother didn’t know.” Oh, because now Ace had indirectly called his own brother stupid. Very funny. Ace narrowed his eyes at Marco, debating on whether to choke him for real again.

But before Ace could make a decision on that, Marco moved his free hand again – that had been such a mistake, Ace should’ve really found a way to immobilize both of his hands, next time he’d make sure of it – but once again, Ace could only watch as Marco slowly unbuttoned his lab coat. Just what the hell was going on in that guy’s head? Couldn’t he react like Ace expected him to one time? Just once?

Apparently not. Under his lab coat, Marco wasn’t even wearing a shirt like Ace expected. It was just his bare chest. But Marco wasn’t just showing him his – admittedly nice – abs, he pointed to the tattoo sprawling over his chest.

“Would a marine get that?”

Well. Even for deception purposes, Ace couldn’t really imagine a marine getting the mark of their greatest (living) enemy tattooed. But if it was actually Whitebeard who picked them up, that brought with it a whole new host of problems. Different and hopefully less immediate problems than the marines, but problems nonetheless.

“Listen, Ace,” Marco spoke before Ace could mentally run through all those problems, “I like being pinned to a wall by a hot, shirtless man as much as the next guy, but it would be much easier to prove I’m with Whitebeard if I could just bring you to meet him.”

…What? Was that guy… flirting? With him? After taking a solid two seconds to process the words, Ace could feel his face burn. And then he felt his face _burn_.

Scrambling backwards, Ace frantically tried to get the flames that erupted on his face under control, glaring at Marco all the while. Seriously, couldn’t he at least have been shocked when Ace erupted into fire right in front of his face? But all he did was rub his throat now that it had been freed, blue flames casually dancing around the spot Ace had squeezed earlier.

Blue flames. The ones that were gentle, safe, grounding, nothing like his own. “You- You’re that guy who-“ _saved me. Calmed me down. Stopped me from turning into the monster I am but never wanted to be._ He couldn’t say that. Couldn’t. “You’re that phoenix,” he finished instead, because that was another connection his brain just made. The phoenix flying across the city had the same gorgeous blue flames, and Ace had felt wings around him when he’d turned to fire, it had to be the same person.

“Yeah, that’s me, the one and only,” Marco agreed easily, as if it wasn’t a big deal. As if he wasn’t known as a hero to human and mutant children alike, throughout the whole city. Or at least the outer parts of it, Ace didn’t know how the inner districts saw him.

Well, this was better than Marco being all arrogant about it, he supposed.

Focus. Ace needed to focus. No getting swept up in Marco’s weird behaviour. This had gotten weird when Marco commented on Ace’ lack of shirt, so that was priority number one for now. “Why am I not wearing a shirt, anyway? Where’s mine?”

“You burned it pretty badly. There wasn’t much left.” Damn, Ace had liked that shirt, and he didn’t have all that many spares. “We got you one to wear though, so you don’t have to accidentally seduce half my siblings if you don’t want to.” Marco pointed to a chair close to the bed Ace had been sleeping in, where indeed a shirt hung over the back rest.

Ace would just pretend he didn’t hear the seduce part of that sentence. Instead he focused on the siblings part. Marco had mentioned them before, and he made it sound like there were quite a few of them. Maybe his whole family was working for Whitebeard, it would make sense if they were all mutants.

Slipping on the shirt – it was simple, but comfortable, and it didn’t look like it had ever been worn, unlike any clothes Ace ever owned – Ace tried to figure out what to do next. Marco apparently wanted him to meet Whitebeard, and while that would help in figuring out his situation and what to do next, Ace didn’t really want to meet him. It was entirely irrational, but he couldn’t help but worry that Whitebeard would take one look at him and see right through his best-kept secret, that he’d see his face and recognize that man’s features, and then kill him on the spot. Or maybe torture him. Make him pay for the sins he inherited.

After all, Whitebeard had known Gold Roger, and personally witnessed the horrors he caused. Everyone knew they were enemies. Fuck, and Luffy might not even get excluded from whatever Whitebeard would do, because of course Garp was also an enemy. One that was still alive, too. What if they tried to use Luffy as leverage against him?

Too dangerous. They had to leave, fast. “Can you take me to where Luffy is,” he asked once he finished putting on the shirt.

No matter what, Ace would have an easier time keeping Luffy safe if they were together. He could figure out everything else as he went along. That was what he’d always done when things went south.

“Sure, no problem. He was really worried about you, he’ll be happy to see you’re awake. You can grab breakfast while you’re there, too, you’re probably really hungry, what with all the energy you spent.”

Ace’ stomach growled as if on command at the mention of breakfast, and Marco smiled the smug smile of someone who’d been proven right. Ace glared at him.

But there was no denying that he _was_ hungry. There were times to be stubborn and contrarian, but being offered free food was not one of them. Well. At least he hoped it was free, Ace didn’t have all that much money left, and Luffy had probably already eaten more than what he could pay for. Whatever. What was eaten was eaten, and Dine’n’Dash was their specialty. Who said they couldn’t pull that on the Whitebeards?

So Ace followed Marco outside, the morning air still chilly, but Ace barely felt it, despite only wearing a shirt and no jacket. But Marco hadn’t even offered him one, nor did he wear one himself or even buttoned his lab coat back up. Weirdo.

Ace had been apprehensive inside the hospital, all the hallways and doors were eerily similar and too clean, but he stopped dead in his tracks as soon as they were out of the door.

There was just so, so much space.

Even back at Dadan’s, all Ace had ever known were narrow streets. Tall buildings. Tiny stores stuffed with as much as could fit in little space. Always too many people everywhere, everything built and haphazardly rebuilt or added onto to fit more and more into the same space.

But the path in front of him was wide without being filled with cars or people, and while there were trees and flower beds to either side, behind that it was just grass.

So many opportunities to really let Luffy stretch. So few places to hide.

There were a few buildings though, as well as a playground and a greenhouse, all spread out and connected by paths. To Ace’ left, it wasn’t far until he could see a small wall, behind which the city as he knew it started. Though even from the distance, the buildings there looked nicer than what Ace was used to.

But the biggest, most obvious point of interest was on the right. All the paths from the smaller buildings converged into one large path, leading up to a huge building that was shaped like a giant whale.

Ace couldn’t help but stare. _Why_ did they bother to make it a whale? And wasn’t Whitebeard supposed to be a _criminal_? Free mutants were supposed to _hide_ , and Ace couldn’t think of a worse way to do that than putting a huge, eccentric building in plain view in a nice part of town. Where did they even get the money to build it? Or the permission to own such a huge plot of land?

This made no sense whatsoever.

Ace was starting to suspect Marco wouldn’t be the only weirdo he’d meet in this place.

Speaking of Marco, he went towards the big whale building without waiting for Ace, but he did glance over his shoulder when Ace shook himself out of his motionless staring and caught back up with him.

There were a few other people out too, some of them greeting Marco as they passed, but nobody tried to strike up a conversation with them, which Ace was thankful for. Some of them were openly staring at him though, to which Ace responded by staring back even more obviously, making most of them drop it pretty fast.

Marco didn’t offer any explanation as he led Ace into the whale building and then up some stairs and down a hallway, which had Ace on edge, but the hallway ended in a big glass door that opened to an even bigger room that was obviously some sort of mess hall.

It was filled with people. More than a hundred for sure. And at least half of them looked to be children or teenagers, but there were older people as well. Though you wouldn’t know it by the level of noise and general chaos, judged purely by that, this was a group of unsupervised elementary schoolers.

Unsure of what else to do, Ace simply kept following Marco, towards what seemed to be a buffet. The food looked really, really good, Ace had to admit. Smelled good, too. Definitely more steakhouse level than supermarket ready-made meal level. Without his consent, Ace’ mouth began watering. Damn, he really was hungrier than he thought.

“Yo, Marco, you’re back! How’d it go with the new guy?” Ace forced himself to stop advancing towards the buffet, instead checking out the guy who’d talked to Marco, trying to figure out what he wanted from them. He was _huge_ , so he could definitely pose a danger if he wanted to. Better be careful.

“He tried to kill me,” Marco answered easily. Without a care in the world of how anyone might react to this information. Grinning, too. Damn it. Ace tensed up, wondering if he could control his fire enough to scorch the big guy if he tried to attack, or if a fist in a sensitive spot would be the safer option. A fight with so many people against him left him at a huge disadvantage, but maybe he could take one of the little kids hostage…

The big guy just laughed. “Hey, newbie, want me to finish the job for you?”

“Uh,” Ace answered, not sure what to say. Was this some kind of test to see if he could be trusted or something? He couldn’t just request an assassination out in the open like this, right? Did they think he was stupid or something?

Marco snorted. “I’d love to see you try, Atmos.”

“Oooohhhh, is he gonna do it? Is he?” A little girl with two braided pigtails suddenly yelled, banging her hands on the table loudly, shaking the plate in front of her. “What’s the score? Haruta, the score! Can he do it?”

The girl looked over to her right, where another girl about her age that had tiny wings on her back was sitting, now also looking at her right to a young man sitting there, munching on a sandwich.

“The score is 279-1 in Marco’s favour,” presumably-Haruta answered, “so unless we’re talking about an eating contest, Atmos probably can’t do it. He sucks. Don’t bet on him.”

“You suck!” Both little girls turned back to Atmos, laughing as they repeated Haruta’s words. The big man clutched his chest, clearly pretending to be seriously wounded by their words, only making them laugh more.

“I bet I could beat you in an eating contest too,” Ace said to Marco before he could stop himself. It felt like he was getting caught up in their rhythm and he didn’t like it, but it was too late now, what’s said is said.

Marco didn’t look bothered, or impressed, or anything, really. “I’m not having an eating contest with you. I only fight battles I think I can win.”

What a boring attitude. Ace would take any challenge, no matter how impossible it seemed. He’d roll his eyes and leave it at that, but he couldn’t help but be curious. “Then how come you think you can win against such a big guy but not me?” Yes, Ace ate a lot, probably more than Atmos no matter how big he was, but Marco didn’t know that.

“One,” Marco raised a finger, “I didn’t think I could win against Atmos, but it was his birthday and I forgot, so I let him pick something he could win in. And two,” Marco raised another finger, “I don’t know how much or how fast you eat, so I have to rely on context clues to make a decision. And I’m not messing with whatever _that_ is. No way.” Marco moved his hand to point across the room, directing Ace’ attention away from the group they’d been talking to.

There, on a table next to the opposite end of the buffet, sat Luffy. Sleeping. And also stretching his arms over to the buffet to randomly grab any food he could and stuffing it into his mouth at a record pace. He had a few bandages on, and a couple of people were staring at him, but he seemed perfectly fine.

Oh thank fuck.

Ace could feel a huge amount of tension leave his body. Luffy was okay. Alive, not collared, just being himself. Being fed, even.

That was really all he needed. He could work the rest out, somehow. He’d figure out what Whitebeard wanted from them, and they’d find a way to leave, and hide from the marines just as they had been. As long as Ace just didn’t use the stupid fire, everything could go back to normal.

Not seeing a need to stick to Marco any longer, Ace went over to the buffet, getting as much food as he could carry at once and sitting down next to Luffy. Nobody was sitting anywhere directly around him – even if anyone had tried, Luffy would’ve taken all of their food, so it wasn’t surprising – but Ace didn’t mind, he was used to blocking Luffy from taking his food, awake or not.

Marco, as he’d said, didn’t ‘mess with that’, sitting down at a table close to theirs instead and striking up a conversation with some guy in a kimono.

Good. Ace would much rather focus on the food in front of him than that pineapple-headed weirdo.

* * *

Even though Ace had skipped lunch and dinner yesterday and Luffy presumably didn’t, Ace still finished first, having eaten less than his little brother. But that was okay, Luffy was a growing boy, he should eat as much as he wanted, especially if they weren’t going to pay for it.

Ace was content just watching him stuff his face, until one of his hands grabbed only emptiness no matter how far he reached, snapping back hard and making him lose his balance, falling over backwards along with his chair.

Blinking, Luffy was clearly confused about where he was and why he was on the ground, but the moment he saw Ace, his face lit up. “Ace! You’re awake!”

“Been awake for a while now, you were the one sleeping.”

But Luffy didn’t listen, just jumped up from the ground and hugged his older brother. “I was so worried! You did all that super cool fire stuff, but then you just passed out and wouldn’t wake up, not even when Marco carried you through the air or they brought us food!” Carried through the air? Ace didn’t remember any of that. Was that how Marco had brought him here? “But now you’re fine! So how did you do the fire thing? I was distracted and then – whoosh – suddenly it was everywhere but it didn’t hit me just all the stupid marines!”

Hearing his fire hadn’t actually hurt Luffy was an incredible relief. Ace barely remembered what he did, but he must’ve been conscious and in control more than he thought he’d been. “Looks like I’m a mutant, after all,” Ace replied, and damn was that a weird thing to say after 18 years of denying it to himself and the world.

Luffy only smiled brighter though. “That means we match! Do you think Sabo got mutant powers, too?”

“Maybe,” Ace humoured him, though it was far less likely for Sabo to be a mutant than Ace, since his parents were nobles, of course purely human, while Ace had always known at least his father was a mutant. Plus, under the watchful gaze of his controlling parents, Sabo would be at a huge risk if he did actually develop a mutation.

“What do you think it would be?” Luffy rambled on without any such negative thoughts. “It would have to be something really cool, because Sabo is really cool, just like you! Maybe he even has fire powers just like you and only I’m different! Just like you’re both the older brothers and I’m the only little one!”

If Sabo actually had fire powers and even a single noble found out about it while he was with them, Sabo would be dead by now, so Ace genuinely hoped Luffy’s fantasy was just that. It was bad enough Ace was saddled with this shit. Sabo had enough other problems already, too.

“You two finally done eating?” Marco’s voice interrupted their conversation before Ace could think of something less morbid to answer, pulling his thoughts back to the situation at hand.

The main problem was still that Ace lacked information. What did Whitebeard want from them? How much did he know? What would happen after the talk? What if they refused to meet him? Where exactly was this place? Were there any defense mechanisms or guards that would stop them from leaving if they tried? How many people would be in their way, and what kind of powers did they have? Ace knew a few of the big names working for Whitebeard, including the Phoenix, the Diamond, the Flower Swords and even the Darkness, but there had to be more.

Ace would fight them all if he had to, but he could hear Sabo screaming at him that doing that would only put Luffy at more risk than necessary. Talking to Whitebeard was a risk too, especially considering Luffy didn’t have a brain-to-mouth filter, but it was the lesser risk. If he did it right, he could even get some answers to his questions.

So Ace followed Marco again, unease in his stomach once more, but at least Luffy was bouncing along this time. Whatever happened, Ace could protect him as long as they were together.

They were led back to the entrance of the whale building, but rather than going outside, they went to the back of the entrance hall, to another large door that Marco knocked on.

“Come in,” a deep voice rumbled from behind the door, and Marco pushed it open, leading the two boys inside.

First things first: Whitebeard was huge. Like bigger than anyone Ace had ever seen. He also had a white beard, which made sense given his name, but somehow Ace had never thought about it. He was sitting on a fittingly giant chair that basically looked like a throne, a cup in one hand as he looked down on them.

“That better be tea.” Marco was the first one to speak, though he didn’t seem to expect more than the quiet laugh he got from Whitebeard as an answer. “Pops, these are Ace and Luffy, I told you about them yesterday.”

Pops?! Wait, was Marco Whitebeard’s son? They didn’t really look alike… And Marco had been talking about siblings, so did that mean Whitebeard had a whole bunch of kids? How come he’d never heard of this? He’d thought Big Mom was the one populating the city with as many mutant children as possible!

But he didn’t really get an explanation. “It’s nice to meet you two,” Whitebeard addressed them – sounding friendly at least, “my name is Edward Newgate, but most people either call me Whitebeard or Pops, so take your pick.”

“Why are we here?” Ace made sure to ask quickly, as he could already see Luffy open his mouth and he’d rather not have this conversation get derailed before it even got started. “Can we leave?”

Whitebeard frowned at his questions. “You are not prisoners, boys. If you truly wish to leave, nobody will stop you.”

Luffy tilted his head to the side. “But?” He’d picked up on it, too, that sentence definitely wasn’t complete as it was.

“But,” Whitebeard did indeed continue, “you two caused quite a scene yesterday. There is a large marine investigation going on right now, so if you lived close to the place of the attack, you will not be safe if you try to return home. If you have a place somewhere else, you could try, but they will be on high alert throughout the entire city for quite a while.”

As much as Ace didn’t want to admit it, he knew Whitebeard was right. Hiding would be much more difficult now, even getting their stuff and what little savings they had would be near impossible, if Buggy hadn’t already taken it all anyway.

“Because we killed all those marines?” Luffy was actually listening and following the conversation, which Ace wasn’t sure if he expected or not.

“Because I _burned_ all those marines,” he clarified, and Whitebeard nodded.

“Yes. You’re too young to have witnessed it, but as long as you understand why they’re scared, that’s enough.”

Oh, Ace definitely, definitely did.

“As for your other question,” Whitebeard continued, and Ace blinked in confusion. No further questions on that part? No wondering if there was a connection, no asking for his family, no nothing? Apparently not. “We don’t really want anything from you. While we’re always looking for money, whatever amount you possess is unlikely to make a dent in our budget, so you might as well keep it. Should you choose to stay, you’ll eventually be expected to help out with chores like cooking or cleaning or watching over the younger children, but in return you will get a safe and comfortable place to sleep, three meals a day, as well as a chance to go to school or to train your abilities.”

“And whether you choose to stay or not,” Marco added on, “you’re always free to come to the hospital if you get hurt or sick.”

Ace looked from Whitebeard to Marco and back, sceptical. “Why?” The offer was good, of course. Everything they had before, but better and also way more, and entirely free of charge except some minor labour? It was too good. Too good to be true. There had to be something else, something they deliberately weren’t telling them because they knew it would make them refuse.

“That sort of support is what every child in the world should receive. The government has declared it a crime to provide it to mutants, but I’m already a criminal, aren’t I? I can do whatever I want.”

Luffy nodded seriously. “That makes sense.”

Did it, though? Ace wasn’t so sure. Whitebeard was essentially helping them… just because why not? To spite the government he didn’t like? For charity?

Ace didn’t want to be a charity case, nor did he want to become a trophy for Whitebeard to hold up to the government to show how thoroughly he’d destroyed their plans. But, he had to admit, if he listened to the tiny rational part of his brain that sounded like Sabo, he didn’t really have any good choice here, but staying was the best out of all the bad options.

Maybe they could stay… for now. Until this had blown over. Maybe Ace could even figure out how to not set himself on fire while he was sleeping during that time.

He looked at Luffy. He didn’t really trust these people, but as long as they didn’t ask too many questions, he could justify staying with them the same way he’d justified relying on Buggy – they were also free mutants who hated the marines, they were unlikely to sell them out. Their motives weren’t quite as obvious and easy to understand as Buggy’s, and they were more powerful, making them inherently more dangerous, but that also meant they offered more reliable protection, which they needed right now.

“Hmmm,” Luffy contemplated, out loud of course, “I don’t really wanna stay here forever, I have my own plans, but you seem like good guys, so it wouldn’t be bad to stay a bit, right?”

He looked at Ace, because this was an important decision they had to make together. They would both be staying, or both of them would leave, that went without saying.

“Yeah,” Ace had to agree, “for now, I think it’s best if we stay.”

Whitebeard smiled, clearly happy with their answer, but Ace could only return a forced smile. This was a disaster waiting to happen, but at least he now probably had some time to prep their escape for when it inevitably came down to it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco just wants to ask Ace and Luffy a few questions to help them get settled, but finds out a lot more than he expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Years y'all, and happy birthday Ace!  
> this isn't a birthday fic and this chapter has nothing to do with birthdays, but I'm still glad I got it done on the special day of my special boy, he deserves the world and at least he's called cute a few times, that has to count for something, right?  
> thanks again to everyone who left kudos or comments, nothing makes me happier than getting them!!

Marco was incredibly relieved to hear that the brothers would be staying, even if it was a temporary deal. This really was the only way to keep them safe right now.

After Marco had reported back yesterday, Izou had gone snooping around a bit during the night, but it had been difficult to even get close to the street Ace had burned with all the marines swarming the place.

Morgans was quick and ruthless as ever, too, the morning paper already had a huge article discussing the incident, speculating about how dangerous this possible new fire mutant was, and calling out the marines for their lack of transparency as they didn’t answer any of his questions – though, as Morgans figured too, it was likely they just didn’t have any answers.

So now literally everyone knew Ace existed and was still free in the city somewhere, because of course the marines would’ve told everyone if they caught him.

Not that it would’ve stayed a true secret anyway, Izou had already spotted King flying over the destroyed street last night before any ‘Big News’ was out, but all the regular civilians worrying about this would make the marines react even more harshly.

Really, the only upside was that apparently absolutely nobody had seen Marco during the incident, which meant everyone would go ask Shanks questions and not Whitebeard. They probably should go ask Shanks some questions too, even if just to avoid suspicion.

That was Haruta’s and Izou’s job though. Marco would worry about it and ask them how everything was going, because he always did, but mostly he’d leave it to them. They knew what they were doing.

For now, Marco would focus on getting Luffy and Ace settled.

They needed a room, a tour of the place, some basic necessities like clothes and toothbrushes, and of course someone responsible for them that they could talk to. Technically, Pops filled that role for everyone, but people tended to be too intimidated to really talk to him in the beginning. Marco never understood that, he’d never thought of Pops as anything other than loving, trustworthy and gentle, but he could acknowledge others thought differently.

The system they had wasn’t bad anyway, always having an old-timer be responsible for the newbies until they found their footing – especially with the little kids. Pops wasn’t fit enough anymore to keep up with all the chaos they caused, but they still needed an adult to care for them. The only question was who that should be for Ace and Luffy.

Marco was the obvious answer. He hadn’t really taken care of anyone in a while, always arguing his responsibilities at the hospital meant he couldn’t be as available as young kids needed, but Ace and Luffy were already teenagers and had lived on their own for a while, they wouldn’t need Marco to supervise them at all times. He could try pawning them off to Fossa since he had fire powers and could help Ace out, but then, so did Marco himself, and it wasn’t like either of them had exactly the same powers as Ace. Thatch was another option since they liked his food so much, but with how badly Ace had reacted to the collar, Marco honestly wasn’t sure how he’d react to Thatch’s powers. There wouldn’t be a point to this if Ace couldn’t trust Thatch.

Taking them under his own wing (pun intended since it had been made countless times before) was probably the best option.

While it would be more work on top of his already not insignificant workload, Marco wasn’t as opposed to the idea as he thought he’d be. The hospital was, for once, not overflowing with patients, so he actually did have a little time on his hands.

And, he couldn’t deny it, the brothers intrigued him quite a bit. Especially Ace. Had he really only awakened his powers at age 18? There was lots of scientific research done on the matter of mutations, but most of it was done by humans and had to be taken with a grain of salt so big Marco hardly found worth in even looking at it. Which left him with his own observations, and maybe a gem of a research article here and there in illegally published books.

Some mutations showed at birth, usually physical traits that couldn’t be changed or controlled, like Aisa’s wings or Namur’s fish characteristics. The ones you could control started to develop between five and fifteen, but it was hard to tell what exactly made them show up earlier or later. Luffy fit that mould perfectly, having first discovered his mutation at age seven.

Rather than looking at the rules, Marco had tried looking at the exceptions to maybe find a rule that connected them. There weren’t many, but Ace wasn’t the first late bloomer to find protection with Whitebeard. But the only thing in common he could find in those people was the environment they grew up in. It was always extremely anti-mutant, often noble or marine families, and the mutants growing up there internalized these sentiments, perhaps subconsciously rejecting their mutations without even knowing they were there.

But it was hard to imagine Ace harboured any sort of hatred towards mutants, even when barely knowing him. Just looking at Luffy made Marco rule out that possibility.

When he smiled, his lips stretched further than any human’s ever could. When he ate, he stuffed his cheeks more than should be possible. When he walked, there was a bounce in his steps that human legs couldn’t produce. He grabbed things out of his reach by stretching his arms, and pulled himself up a staircase by grabbing the railing on top and launching himself instead of taking the stairs like a normal person. When bored, he stretched his fingers one by one, or tangled them together.

It was one thing for a teenage mutant that had his powers for a while to know how to use them. All the ones they picked up at this stage could. But all the ones they picked up at this stage also knew how to hide their powers. To get them to use their powers so casually, so frequently, without any second thoughts about who might be watching, that was a challenge every single time.

A challenge they wouldn’t have to face with Luffy, because it clearly never crossed his mind that he could or should police every little thing he does to hide his mutation, and nobody ever told him to do it either. There was absolutely no way this hadn’t ever caused trouble.

Ace, being the one to raise him for years, must’ve had plenty of reason and opportunity to try and make Luffy change his behaviour. Nobody could’ve blamed him if he did. But, despite just being a kid himself, he never did.

Considering his extreme reaction this morning, as well as the distrust he clearly harboured towards all of them even after finding out who they were and being offered help, Marco didn’t doubt that Ace knew the full consequences if the marines caught Luffy, making this truly remarkable.

He only realized he’d been lost in thought and not listening when a hand was waved wildly in front of his face. “Hey! Hey, pineapple head! The old man said you’d give us a tour!” Luffy was bouncing in front of him excitedly, and Marco couldn’t help but smile.

Ace promptly hit his brother over the head. “Don’t just call him that! We should try and be nice now that we decided to stay, don’t you think?”

“But Thatch called him that, too…” Luffy pouted.

“I don’t mind,” Marco told them both, “just don’t tell Thatch about it. If he finds out I don’t actually care, he’ll come up with worse nicknames until he finds one I hate.”

Luffy grinned, but Ace didn’t seem as amused. “Who’s this Thatch?”

“He brought food for me yesterday,” Luffy answered before Marco could, “the meat was really, really yummy! And there was a lot! He had funny hair too!”

“Yeah, Thatch is the one responsible for feeding everyone here. If you’re ever hungry outside of meal times, you can almost always find him in the kitchen.” Somehow, Marco had a feeling these two would get to know Thatch pretty well pretty quickly. He could only hope Thatch wouldn’t set them up for too much mischief.

With a wave to Pops, Marco led the brothers out of the room. The estate was big, lots of places to get to. Since the main building was mostly just where everyone lived, it was probably best to end with that once Marco had figured out what room the brothers would get.

So he went outside first, taking a right turn immediately to show them the small building right next to the Moby Dick first. “That’s the school,” he explained, “it’s a little different from public schools, but essentially you can learn all the same stuff here. Did you guys ever go?”

“What about you?” Instead of answering the question, Ace immediately fired back with his own.

Well, Marco didn’t mind telling them, he just hoped it would get Ace to answer too. “I never really went,” Marco disclosed easily, “this school didn’t exist when I was a kid, so I learned all the basic stuff directly from Pops. Two of his old friends taught me the basics of medicine, and one of them faked me a high school diploma so I could go to a regular medical school when I was an adult.”

Ace stayed silent for a little while, with Marco just smiling at him as he waited for a reaction of any kind. Luffy looked between them, probably a bit confused on what was going on and why they weren’t moving anymore.

“I went to school until fourth grade,” Ace eventually disclosed, “Luffy only for a few months. But we can both read and write, and we learned what we needed for various jobs, and a bunch of stuff we found interesting from the library. There’s really no point learning anything else.”

Well. That was a pretty clear ‘no’ to the offer Marco would’ve made to let them go to school here, but fine. Ace was past the age for general education anyway, and as long as they could read and write and do a little math, that was a solid enough foundation to work with.

“I guess not,” Marco agreed, “but if you ever want to learn about anything specific, just ask. The library is kind of split up into parts, some books are here, some in other buildings, so it isn’t easy finding what you want if you don’t know where to look.”

“Do you have books about dinosaurs?”

“Quite the collection.”

Luffy’s eyes turned wide and started to sparkle, and really that reaction that a lot of kids somehow had when it came to dinosaurs was enough to justify the ever-growing amount of space dedicated to storing books about prehistoric creatures. Though originally they’d started getting them because they somewhat regularly fought with people who could turn into said creatures, but Luffy and Ace didn’t need to know that yet.

Sadly, even as Marco promised to show Luffy where the dinosaur books were located, Ace didn’t ask for any other books. It would’ve been nice to know what topics he considered to be interesting, and Marco couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

He knew logically that Ace didn’t trust easily and was obviously on guard about giving out any information about himself or his brother, so he had to be patient, but there was just something about the young man that intrigued Marco. He couldn’t pinpoint it exactly, but whatever it was, it made him want to know more. Not just the basics that he needed to ensure Ace could live here without any major issues, no, he wanted to truly understand Ace.

If he thought asking probing questions like he really wanted to would help him get there, there would be no stopping him, but he was pretty sure Ace would either refuse to answer or feed him lies, only making it harder down the road to actually learn anything about him, so Marco reigned himself in.

Instead, he went to show the greenhouse to the two brothers, and the small fields behind it. “We grow our own food here, it’s not enough to feed everyone, but it helps the budget a bunch, and it’s nice to know we won’t starve if for any reason we can’t get food from outside for a time.”

Next was the indoor training area, which was mostly just open space but with reinforced walls and roof to make sure nobody got hit by any powers on accident while young mutants still struggled to control them. This was definitely a place he’d have to take Ace to a bunch, fire was too destructive for them to not be absolutely sure Ace had it under control.

At the playground, they met Blamenco who was watching the veggie boys play. These three had a knack for getting injured, even when under supervision, so Marco wouldn’t be surprised if he heard they’d been to the infirmary again today when he returned for a report from the head nurse in the evening.

But that was for future him to worry about. “Good to see you, Blamenco,” he greeted his brother, “I was gonna go looking for you since these two still need a place to sleep. There’s no reason to keep them in the hospital, they’re fine enough.”

“That’s good to hear, I’m glad you two didn’t get hurt with all the ruckus you caused!” Blamenco shot the brothers a friendly grin. “I’m responsible for organizing rooming and a bunch of other boring but necessary stuff, so feel free to talk to me if there’s anything you need, I might just have it on hand.”

“Do you have candy?” Once again, Luffy didn’t miss a beat before asking his question. Didn’t he have breakfast like half an hour ago? And a lot of it? How was he already thinking of food again?

But of course Blamenco did in fact have candy. He winked at Luffy, reached deep into the pocket on his left cheek, and pulled out two pieces of chocolate, presenting them to Luffy and Ace.

Luffy’s jaw literally hit the floor. “He’s a magic man,” he whispered in awe once it bounced back up, eagerly taking the chocolate from Blamenco.

“He’s a mutant,” Ace corrected, eyeing the chocolate offered to him with suspicion. Still, it was incredibly obvious he wanted it. _Extremely_ obvious. But he didn’t make any move to reach out for it.

Until Blamenco moved his hand. “If you don’t want it, that’s fine, I’ll give it to Marco.”

Ace snatched the chocolate from Blamenco’s hand faster than anyone could react, stuffing it into his pocket wordlessly.

_Cute._

“Now, before anyone else hears about free candy being handed out here, let’s get back on topic, you two wanna share a room or get separate ones?”

“Share,” the brothers answered in unison, not even thinking about Blamenco’s question for a second.

Blamenco had to pull out a book to check what rooms were free, but he handed Ace a key ring with two identical keys pretty quickly. “It’s been free for a while, so it might be dusty, but I’ll come over with cleaning supplies and a bunch of other stuff for you like clothes, towels and the like later today, so we’ll make it liveable by tonight, no worries.” He turned to Marco. “Do you know who’s gonna take care of them yet?”

“Me.” Marco finalized his decision in that moment, but that was the one good thing about being responsible for a bunch of stuff: You could just make decisions on the fly and didn’t have to ask anyone.

Blamenco only raised his eyebrows, clearly a little surprised, but didn’t say anything. Ace, on the other hand, looked incredibly offended and a bit angry, and he had no problem making that known to everyone. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me!”

“You do, but also the fact that you don’t is kind of the point.”

Ace threw his hands up in frustration. “What the _fuck_ is that supposed to mean? Can’t you just stop saying weird shit?”

Weird shit? Marco could admit that this was phrased a little confusingly, but he didn’t recall saying anything else that could be considered weird. Whatever. He could at least explain this one. “What I mean is, you need someone to show you how things work here, and maybe someone to help you get used to your powers. Nobody here has exactly the same powers as yours, but mine are similar enough that I might be able to help you. But you’re an adult, you’ve been living on your own for years, I don’t have to go to your room every morning to help you get dressed and brush your teeth, which I don’t have the time for.”

Still, Ace didn’t look too happy with that, but he didn’t complain any further.

They finished the tour without any further incidents, so Marco led them back to the main building to show them where their room was. Thankfully, the rooms were numbered, making it easy for Marco to figure out it was on the third floor, at the end of the hallway.

“Blamenco will bring you what you need,” Marco explained on the way up the stairs, “but if you want we can also go and try to get your old stuff back. Were you living with anyone who would hold onto your belongings?”

There was no answer for a few seconds as they reached the right floor and rounded a corner into the hallway with their room. “The apartment complex we lived in was owned by a free mutant,” Ace eventually disclosed, “if we don’t show up for a while, he’ll probably sell everything we owned.”

“A free mutant?” It wasn’t all that surprising, it would’ve been much easier for mutant kids to survive if they had an adult helping them.

“Yeah,” Luffy chirped happily, “he was a really funny guy! Looked like a clown, and he could split his body up!”

Marco froze. It was so sudden, Ace walked into him, but Marco barely registered it. He turned to face the brothers, incredulous. “ _Buggy?!_ ”

“You know Buggy?” Ace sounded just as surprised as Marco felt.

“Sort of. When we were kids, he was like that annoying younger cousin that I had to babysit every now and then, but I haven’t heard from him in ages. Had no idea what he’s up to these days.”

All Marco knew was that Buggy had been glued to Shanks’ side every time they met, until one day he wasn’t anymore. Shanks never said anything, and with everything that happened, Marco had figured… well. It couldn’t be helped. They’d never been close or anything.

But apparently Buggy was alive and just fine, and if he was living in East Blue, there was no way Shanks wasn’t aware of it and in contact with him, making the retrieval of Ace’ and Luffy’s stuff much more difficult unless they were willing to disclose their location to Shanks.

“So are we gonna go to our room or are we just gonna keep standing here?” Luffy was already a few steps ahead, looking at Marco questioningly.

Right. That was a can of worms for later. “Let’s go.”

* * *

The room ended up being more than just a little dusty, but nothing the three of them couldn’t fix until lunch, and after that Blamenco brought over everything they needed for the foreseeable future, meaning the brothers were settled in the early afternoon, each laying happily on the bed they claimed.

As much as Marco would like to let them rest, there was still a bunch of stuff they had to talk about. The sooner they got it all out of the way, the better. First, some paperwork. “Do you guys have passports or any other documentation?”

“Nah,” Ace replied from his bed, “if we ever had any, we didn’t take it with us when we left home.”

“That’s fine, we can just make you some,” Marco assured them, “got any last names you want to use?”

“Monkey D. Luffy!”

Once again, Marco could feel himself freeze and stare at Luffy in disbelief. Ace sat up in alarm, clearly tense, totally opposite from the relaxed posture he had just a second ago.

“As in, Monkey D. Garp?” It could still be just a coincidence. People shared last names all the time without being related to each other. This city was so big, there were a billion people living here, there was no way…

“Yeah! You know Gramps?”

Marco heard Ace facepalm more than he saw it.

Huh. Garp’s grandson. That sure was going to be a headache if Garp ever found out he was here.

How the hell had Buggy kept him hidden in East Blue, Garp’s home turf?

“Luffy,” Ace hissed when Marco failed to react on time, “Gramps is a marine, they’re enemies.”

“Oh… right.”

“Listen,” Ace turned to face Marco, “we haven’t seen Garp in eight years. He might still be looking for Luffy, but he doesn’t even know Luffy is a mutant. He won’t think we’re here, and we can always leave if he does show up.”

“Ah, it’s fine,” Marco managed to say, finally, “we’ll deal with Garp. Though I agree it’s best for all of us if he just doesn’t figure out where you are.” He took a deep breath. That was something he’d have to talk to Pops about, but only to figure out what precautions to take. There was no way they would just leave them on their own even if Garp did come looking for them.

“What about you?” Marco turned to Ace. “Luffy said you’re not related, so do you have a different name?”

It took a while for Ace to answer again, and Marco was just about to offer him that he could just use Newgate if he wanted to, or make one up, but then Ace spoke first. “Portgas D. Ace.”

“Great,” Marco murmured as he wrote it down in his notebook, “don’t think I ever heard that name before.”

There was still a bunch of organizational stuff to get through, but Marco felt more and more tempted to just push it back to some other time. He did still need to get back to the hospital before dinner and check on all the patients. And he had a feeling Ace wouldn’t appreciate him asking a bunch of questions all at once, he looked tense and on edge enough from just giving out their names.

But one thing he couldn’t push back. “I’ll leave you to rest for a bit in a minute, but Ace… we still have to figure out what to do when you go to sleep.”

Ace narrowed his eyes at him. “What do you mean, exactly?”

“Last night, while you were sleeping, you set yourself on fire. I noticed and managed to put the fire out with my own flames, but ultimately ended up putting that collar on you because the fire kept popping up. I assume you were having some kind of nightmare. You seem easily in control of your fire when you’re awake, but clearly it’s a different story when you’re asleep, and I don’t want to risk you burning down this house. Your brother didn’t wake up from it last night either, so I doubt you want to risk it either with him sleeping in the bed right next to yours.”

As expected, Ace didn’t look happy about the explanation at all. “I’m not letting you just collar me! Forget it!”

Marco sighed. Yeah, the collars definitely sucked, he couldn’t even really blame Ace, but still. “It’s not the only option,” Marco conceded, “but I’m honestly not sure if you’ll like any of the other options any better. Ideally, we could make you a device that checks if you’re on fire and wakes you immediately with a loud noise or something, but we don’t just have that on hand, so we’ll have to figure out something else until we have a good solution.”

“What’s the other options?”

“As I said, I could put your fire out with mine, so I could watch you sleep all night to make sure nothing happens and put out the fire if I have to, but, well, it’s kind of creepy for me to just watch you sleep. I wouldn’t mind, but you probably would.”

Ace was cute when he slept, keeping an eye on him really wouldn’t be the worst way to spend a night, but even Marco realized how creepy it sounded to have a stranger just watch you sleep, and them thinking you’re cute really didn’t help the situation at all.

“You could also try to stay awake at night and sleep some other time while someone you trust – which for now I’m going to assume is just Luffy and nobody else – watch over you and wake you if you set yourself on fire, but it would mean giving up on a healthy sleep rhythm which as a doctor I can’t really approve of, and of course Luffy would then have to spend a couple hours watching over you while you sleep every day instead of doing anything else.”

Marco hesitated for a moment after that, wondering if he should even tell Ace about the last option. He didn’t think Ace would take it and it might scare him to know about the possibility, but in the end, he’d probably find out about it anyway and would have to live with it.

“Lastly, a mutant lives here who can temporarily take other mutants’ abilities from them. He could use his powers on you, and for a few hours, he’d have your fire powers instead of you. It’s not a permanent thing, he can’t take away your powers for good, but while it’s perhaps more comfortable than the collar, you’d have to rely on him to do it, and once the power’s gone, it’s gone until his power wears off, whereas you can just take the collar off and get your powers back the moment you wake up.”

Technically it was a bit of a lie, Marco was pretty sure Thatch _could_ steal a mutant’s power from them permanently, but he’d never tried it and never wanted to try either, so it was off the table regardless. No point in making Ace worry about it.

He already looked worried enough. Definitely not happy with any of the choices, exactly as Marco had told him beforehand.

Couldn’t really blame him, Marco wouldn’t like any of them either.

“Well, it’s about 4pm, you’ve got time to decide. I gotta go back to the hospital for now, but dinner starts in two hours, I’ll see you there. You can stay here or go out, you know where to find me if you need anything, and most everyone else will probably also be willing to help you out if you ask them.”

“Can we go wherever?” Despite the uncomfortable atmosphere, Luffy still sounded excited at the prospect, and Marco couldn’t help but smile.

“Sure, just don’t break into anyone’s room, that would be rude, but otherwise you can go explore the whole place.”

Part of Marco wanted to name a few places they were technically allowed to go to but probably shouldn’t, but somehow he couldn’t shake the feeling that if he did, the brothers would make a beeline for exactly those places. It was just a hunch, but his gut feeling was rarely wrong.

“See you, then!” Luffy waved after him as Marco left, but Ace hadn’t said anything in a while. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, though, and Marco had no idea what to say to help him with it.

Maybe this would be more work than Marco had initially figured, but hopefully he’d eventually learn how to help Ace. It would be worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teach? Who's that? Never heard of him. Pretty sure you're just thinking of Thatch. A lovely boy with lovely powers of darkness <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Ace starts living with the Whitebeards, he gets to train his abilities, meet new people and maybe even make a new friend. But understanding Marco seems to stay out of his reach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm speeding things up a little this chapter, I hope you still like it!  
> I appreciate every comment and all the kudos I get!

Ace took the collar.

He hated it, hated even the feeling of holding it in his hands, but he didn’t see any other option. He couldn’t risk hurting Luffy. Couldn’t trust Marco, and certainly couldn’t trust a mutant he’d never even met to take his powers.

Not that Ace liked the stupid fire or wanted to keep it – maybe he’d risk it if the offer had been to just get rid of it forever with nobody having it – but giving it to someone else was way too risky. It was too destructive, who knew what that guy would do with it once he got his hands on it! Ace wouldn’t be able to stop him, and Luffy would once again be in danger.

He could’ve asked Luffy to watch over him, but… he didn’t want Luffy to be confined to one place for eight hours every single day. He was such an active kid, always full of energy, he needed to move! Luffy would do it if Ace asked, he didn’t doubt it, but it would be torture for him.

So, the collar it was. For now, at least. Marco had promised him at dinner that some guy named Fossa would get to work on a fire detecting device he could wear comfortably to sleep right the very next day.

He didn’t like relying on strangers so much, but so far, it didn’t seem like they were planning anything. They really didn’t seem to care much what he and Luffy were doing, nobody was watching them once Marco left.

Ace even went and tested if they could escape – yes, there was a wall around the whole estate, but it wasn’t all that tall, if he jumped he could reach the top with his hands and climb up, no rubber powers required. And once they were up, they could just jump down on the other side and were out. No alarms sounded, nobody came to look for them, nobody even asked them what they were doing later on after they went back in.

He’d wonder if they were too careless to be of help if it wasn’t for the invisible but tangible bubble that encased the estate from atop the wall. While it was easy to break through, it somehow – maybe through technology, maybe someone’s mutation – projected a different image on what was behind the wall as long as you were outside. The weird whale building wasn’t a problem because all you could see was a bunch of non-descript office buildings.

So they _were_ hiding, while simultaneously giving everyone a place to just casually use their powers outside without having to worry about being seen.

It was pretty amazing, if he was honest.

Definitely made it easier to follow Marco to the training grounds the next day to figure out how much Ace actually had his powers under control.

Ace… wasn’t exactly keen on using his powers, like, ever, but he also wasn’t sure if refusing to use them wouldn’t just make things worse. The flames were there, after all, and they erupted from his body without his consent when he got too pissed or embarrassed or whatever, and that was dangerous.

As he was, Ace was a danger to everyone around him, including Luffy, and his time of being able to deny that had finally run out.

Marco hadn’t made it sound like Ace had any sort of choice in the matter, and honestly Ace couldn’t blame him. Even on the off chance that the Whitebeards really were just super nice and helpful guys who helped out everyone they could without asking for anything in return, even they wouldn’t want an uncontrolled ticking time bomb in their middle. Part of Ace wanted to refuse just to see how they would react, but he also knew he’d feel too much like he was running away if he did.

No regrets, he’d promised Luffy. No running away.

Maybe gaining control of this curse would be the key to finally being able to forget it.

“Let’s start easy,” Marco prompted in the middle of the otherwise entirely empty training area, “try making a small flame in your hand, like this.” Ace watched as Marco held out his hand, palm facing upwards, and a small blue flame sprouted easily from his skin. Despite being close to Ace’ skin, it didn’t feel hot at all, only spreading a gentle warmth.

With Marco’s expectant eyes on him, Ace held out his hand as well.

This was weird. Ace had been able to feel these flames for a long time now, could barely remember a time where they hadn’t been constantly crawling under his skin, but he’d never actually consciously tried letting them out. It was repulsive, disgusting, maybe even scary to just think about controlling them in a way other than just pushing them back inside of him.

But he had to try, that was the whole point. Taking a deep breath, Ace focused on the fire he could feel in his hand. It wanted to get out and burn, all he had to do was let it. So he did.

He let go.

His hand immediately dissolved into pure fire, a giant pillar of flame shooting up to the ceiling.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, _fuck-_

Blue flames intercepted his own, engulfing his hand. They contained his fire to a small area, but it didn’t really feel like they forced it to stay. It was just that they were so… calm – could fire be calm? But Ace had no other word to describe the feeling they were giving off – even his unruly flames settled down a little.

With his instinctive panic from the outburst of fire subsiding, it was easy for Ace to force the flames back into his hand.

The blue flames extinguished themselves only a few seconds later, leaving Marco’s hand hovering a few centimetres over Ace’s. For a moment, Ace wondered if Marco would lower it and grab Ace’ hand, but then Marco pulled it back and Ace immediately felt stupid.

Why would Marco grab his hand? That would just be weird! Ace certainly didn’t want that!

He quickly pulled his own hand back too, dropping it at his side. “Sorry,” he murmured, looking up at the ceiling to see if he’d caused any damage. He could make out a small black spot, but at least no hole or anything.

“No need to be sorry, I’d say that was a decent start.”

How was that a decent start? But as Ace looked back down to see Marco’s face, it was just as calm and impassive as it seemed to be almost always. No signs of him being worried, or sarcastic, or making fun of Ace.

“You managed to summon fire on command, and only on your hand like you were trying to do. All you really have to do is dial down the intensity.”

Well, looking at it like that, Marco was right. Maybe this wouldn’t be as difficult as Ace had imagined it would be.

* * *

It was, though.

When it was time for lunch, Ace felt completely drained, but he hadn’t made any progress. ‘Dial down the intensity’ was clearly much, much easier said than done. It looked like Ace’ control over his fire only had two settings, go big or go home.

At the very least, he could control pretty well where the fire would come out of, but even if he contained it to just a finger, or even just a fingertip, the force of the fire that shot out didn’t change at all.

Marco didn’t seem bothered by the lack of progress at all, but Marco was also a weirdo that Ace would never understand, so that probably didn’t say much. Maybe tomorrow his reaction would be totally different for no reason.

Just as Ace had started shovelling food into his mouth to forget about his failures, a guy with a pompadour showed up at their table, dragging a sheepish-looking Luffy behind him.

“Marco,” pompadour-guy started, sounding weirdly dead inside, “you have to find something else for him to do. Luffy’s a sweet kid, he tried his best, I love him, he can visit whenever he wants, but he’s never ever allowed to touch anything in my kitchen ever again.”

“Do I want to know?” Marco raised a single eyebrow.

“No.”

Ace snorted. There was a reason Luffy never got any chores in their tiny makeshift kitchen back home. Ramming his fork into the table exactly in front of Luffy’s hand that was inching closer to Ace’ food by the second, Ace shot a grin to the pompadour guy. “I could’ve told you that would happen.”

“And why didn’t you?”

“You didn’t ask.” Ace didn’t consider himself a mean guy, but it was pretty fun watching the misery on this random guy’s face.

Even Marco next to him was barely suppressing his laughter. It made him miss Luffy stealing one of the fish sticks on his plate, but Ace wasn’t about to snitch on his brother.

“Stop snickering you stupid pineapple head! This is your fault! If we go over budget this month with all the dishes he broke, you can pay for it!”

“Calm down, Thatch, I’ll take him with me to the infirmary after lunch and then I’ll find something else for him to do.”

Ah, so this was the Thatch guy Marco and Luffy had talked about yesterday. He did have funny hair. Thatch finally let go of Luffy with a sigh, and the two went off to get food for themselves before sitting down across from Ace and Marco.

“So, Ace, right?” Thatch spoke up once he had shoved a fork with mashed potatoes into his mouth. “Since you’re Luffy’s brother and I’m a smart adult who learns from my mistakes and wants to avoid any further disaster, what _is_ Luffy really good at?”

“Making friends.” Ace had answered without thinking, but Thatch made a really weird face in response. Almost like he was about to cry? But not really sad? Just weird. Did Ace say something wrong? Or did Thatch just choke on his food? Maybe he was just a weirdo, like Marco and everyone else here.

“You need to stay here forever.”

That statement came out of nowhere, and Ace could feel his whole body tense immediately. What? There was no way he would be staying here indefinitely! He needed to figure out what mutation Thatch had and how to fight him, just in case he’d try to force him to stay. Or maybe making him stay was their plan from the start, and Thatch was just stupid enough to blab about it?

“Great job, Thatch,” Ace heard Marco grumble beside him, “you’re just scaring him off.” Marco turned to look at Ace, his expression still casual, not at all like someone had just spilled their secret plan. “Don’t listen to him, Ace, he’s just an idiot who doesn’t know how to control his feelings. Now that he likes you, he’ll cry if you leave, but he’ll let you go, there’s no need to worry.”

Okay, that sounded honest, but he did still realize that a grown man he’d known for like five minutes crying over him leaving was still weird as fuck, right? Like that was still creepy? He didn’t even know what he’d done to make Thatch supposedly like him!

Something was definitely wrong with all these people. It was better to ignore them than get involved.

At least the food was good. Eating was the best excuse to not talk, and Thatch seemed really happy with how much Ace and his brother were eating. People usually were more weirded out or disgusted by it, but Ace could understand that the chef took it as a compliment. It wasn’t really one since they’d eat just as much even if the food wasn’t as good, but he wasn’t wrong in his assumption that they liked it, so whatever.

Once they were done eating, Marco took Luffy to the infirmary as promised, and since Ace didn’t really have anything else to do, he followed along.

He quietly watched as Marco changed Luffy’s bandages, determining which ones would have to be reapplied and which wounds were already healed enough to be left alone. Apparently only the cut on his face would leave behind a scar if everything healed the way it should, but Luffy didn’t mind, saying the scar would look “cool” and everyone would think he’s a “badass fighter” if they saw it.

Ace was just glad nothing worse happened. If he hadn’t been there…

Still feeling drained, Ace let himself fall on the unused hospital bed. Wasn’t it ironic that the curse he inherited from the man he hated the most had been what saved the person he loved the most in the entire world?

He wanted to hate his powers, wanted to claw that burning sensation out from under his skin and get rid of it, but how could he when they were the reason Luffy was still laughing without a care in the world? It couldn’t be a good thing. Couldn’t even properly be used for good. Maybe most of Luffy’s wounds were cuts, but that didn’t change the fact that some of them were burns.

Fire was made to destroy, not protect. He was lucky it had worked out this time. Maybe he could keep pushing his luck a little longer…

With exhaustion settling into his bones and Luffy’s happy chatter to ease his nerves, it wasn’t really a surprise that Ace fell asleep without really noticing.

* * *

The sun was significantly lower in the sky when Ace woke back up, and the room had turned quiet except for the small sound of pen scratching on paper.

Reaching to his neck, he was relieved to find nothing there. Probably explained why he felt more rested than after the longer sleep he had this night with the collar on.

Still, Luffy was gone, and so was Marco, leaving Ace alone with a man he’d never seen before, who was sitting at the desk and writing something into a notebook. The guy turned around when he heard Ace sit up, and while his eyes were hidden by a mask for some reason, the smile on his face seemed friendly enough.

“Ah, you’re awake,” he stated rather pointlessly, “sorry it’s just me here. Luffy wanted to watch over you, but he made friends with Chimney while she was getting a band-aid for her scraped knee and at some point they ran outside pretending to be whale sharks or something. Doctor Marco said he’d look over you, but he got called away for an emergency. I don’t know exactly what happened but with how long it’s taking, probably nothing good.”

Well, at least the guy did know what information Ace was looking for the most. Maybe he was a reasonable person among all these crazies. “And who are you? Are you a doctor too?” He wasn’t wearing a lab coat or anything, and certainly not a nurse uniform, but he also didn’t look like he was working right now, and why else would he be here?

“Ah… No, Doctor Marco is the only doctor we have here right now, though Meg will hopefully get her doctorate soon. I’m not a medical professional of any kind, I’m just Deuce. I help out here, but don’t worry, if you need more than a band-aid, it’ll always be done by someone who’s qualified to help you properly.”

Considering Ace had done any sort of bandaging up either by himself or with help from Luffy, he didn’t really care, surely Deuce was more qualified than a crying child. “Just Deuce?” What a weird way to introduce yourself. Or was ‘Just’ his family name? That would be pretty funny.

“Well, Deuce is my name, and I help out here, that’s really all there is to know about me… You asked who I am, and it just didn’t feel like a good enough answer, but I don’t have anything else I could say…”

That… was kinda sad. Even if Ace removed the parts he didn’t want to talk about, he still had way more to say about himself. “You wear a mask,” he tried, “that’s interesting.” Maybe it looked a little lame and it didn’t really cover all that much of Deuce’ face, but it certainly was a fashion choice that would make others curious.

“The mask is really just a special pair of glasses,” Deuce waved him off, “I’ve got x-ray vision, but I can’t turn it off, so I need to wear this mask if I want to see more of the world than just shadowy figures with skeletons inside.”

“Creepy.” Ace couldn’t really imagine seeing the world like that, especially as a little kid, that must’ve been scary. “But useful, I guess. You can check for broken bones really easily.”

“Yeah. The kids don’t tend to like x-ray machines much, and when lots of our fighters come back injured, it’s much faster if I can go around to check for broken bones. It’s why I help out here.”

Made sense. “So are you gonna become a doctor too? Or a nurse?” Marco had said he’d gone to medical school as an adult, and Deuce didn’t look like he was much older than Ace, so he could still go.

“No.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

It was amazing how easy it was to read Deuce’ emotions even with the mask hiding his eyes. Ace had only known him for a few minutes, but he could already easily tell that Deuce didn’t want to answer this question at all. Too bad for him Ace wasn’t nice enough to withdraw his question. Though if Deuce refused to answer, he wouldn’t pry either.

“I tried to become a nurse,” Deuce eventually admitted with a sigh, “but I failed. I’m really only allowed to work here because it’s not an official hospital, we’re always understaffed, and my ability is useful.”

“And you can’t try again?”

“I think disappointing everyone once is enough.” Deuce’ voice was barely a murmur, but Ace heard every word anyway. Ouch. What was he supposed to say to that?

Deuce took his silence as an opportunity to change the topic. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Ace was confused by the question. He had no idea what he was being asked.

“I mean, what are you gonna do? Like, ten years from now, what do you wanna be?”

“Free.” What kind of question was that? “And obviously I’m gonna make sure Luffy is safe and free, too.” Nothing else mattered.

Deuce looked like he had some sort of revelation. Ace couldn’t see it because of the mask, but he was certain Deuce’s eyes were sparkling. Not that he understood why. “That’s not a very specific plan,” Deuce eventually said, but it sounded more like he was fascinated than pointing out a flaw.

Ace shrugged. “There’s too much you can’t plan for. I’ll figure out the specifics of what I’ll do in ten years in, well, ten years.”

What kind of person would even try to plan ten years into the future? At best, Ace planned from month to month, and even that was always at risk. Just looking at his current situation, how the hell could he have known what would happen to him last month? There was just no way to foresee this. It was adapt or die in this world, and Ace was good at adapting. Making too many plans only kept your thoughts chained to them.

The door opened without any sort of warning, revealing a tall woman in a kimono. She was breathing hard, but her gaze was steady as she fixated Deuce. “Where’s Izou?”

“Still in surgery, last I heard, but I also haven’t heard anything in a while.”

Right, Deuce had mentioned earlier that Marco was called away because of an emergency.

“Actually, he just got out of surgery.” Speaking of the devil, Marco appeared in the door behind the tall woman. “He’ll be fine. He’s still under anaesthesia, but you can go visit him in room 201 if you want.”

The woman breathed a sigh of relief. “What happened?”

Ace didn’t miss the way Marco’s eyes flicked over to him very briefly before he answered.

“He was just supposed to go ask some questions, but he wasn’t the only one with that idea. Cracker wasn’t as willing to accept the litany of ‘I don’t know’-s as Izou was, and he got caught up in the crossfire a little. From what he told me, everyone else involved in that scuffle is worse off than him.”

That was vague as hell, all things considered, but it seemed to be enough for the woman. “Thank you, Marco.” She bowed politely, and left, presumably to go visit this Izou guy who got hurt.

Finally Marco properly turned to Ace. “Sorry to leave you on your own, but we didn’t really know where Luffy went.”

“It’s fine,” Ace found himself saying before he knew it, “Deuce is a cool guy. I don’t mind.”

Everyone was a little surprised by that statement, including Ace, but Deuce definitely showed it the most, his mouth opening in shock.

Marco smiled. “I see. I’m glad you think so.”

* * *

The rest of the week passed in a similar manner. After breakfast, Ace would go train with Marco, who always had new exercises for him. Ace found out that he could still control the fire once it was out of his body, hitting targets wasn’t hard as long as he could see them properly and they didn’t move. Though he could only entirely obliterate them, still no progress on the ‘dial down the intensity’ front.

Marco was just as unbothered by this as he’d been on day one, and Ace still wasn’t sure if he liked that or not. Technically it was of course better than Marco getting angry at him, but it would be normal to get frustrated if something just didn’t work out no matter what you did, especially something as potentially dangerous as Ace getting his powers under control. Ace certainly was starting to get frustrated with himself, making it even weirder that Marco stayed so calm.

Stupid Marco. Everything about him was too confusing. Ace still didn’t know if he liked the guy or not.

Which was why he’d taken to hanging out with Deuce instead. Deuce was cool. And he was often in the hospital, so Ace could keep an eye on Marco and try to figure him out without it being too suspicious.

Besides, even though they hadn’t traded life stories or anything, just from their first meeting Ace could figure that Deuce didn’t like himself very much. He could relate to that, even if their reasons were entirely different. Better than Marco, who seemed entirely too comfortable with himself and the world.

Right now though, they were hanging out in the school’s library with Luffy and about twenty kids Ace could name maybe two of, having been relegated to babysitting duty since it was pouring outside, and someone had to make sure they didn’t break anything much. Right now about half of them were listening to a fairy tale that one of the older kids was reading out loud, while the other half was running up against Luffy’s stomach that he had blown up like a balloon, to see how far they would bounce back.

Nothing to worry about, they were all tough kids and clearly having fun. Ace turned back to Deuce, continuing to grumble about his lack of progress on getting his fire to stay small and nice. Like Marco’s fire.

“I think-“ Deuce started, but he was cut off by the sound of a loud siren echoing through the entire building.

“What’s that?” Ace jumped up from the cushion on the floor he’d been laying on, immediately ready to fight. The fire was already straining against his skin, eager to get out and wreak some havoc.

Deuce was up just as quickly. “Intruder alert.” He swallowed, panic obvious on his face as he turned to the children. “Fuck, that never happens, how the hell did anyone even manage to get in?”

Ace’ gaze immediately found Luffy. His brother was surrounded by kids, some of which looked very scared and had grabbed his arms, but Luffy only looked confused and mildly annoyed at the loud noise.

Damn, it didn’t look like he could just drag Luffy with him to fight whoever had broken in, not without dragging these random kids with them. They’d be in the way.

But he didn’t want to leave Luffy out of his sight either. What if it was the marines? They already got way too close last week, he couldn’t risk them capturing or killing Luffy.

“Calm down,” he hissed at Deuce, “nothing bad has happened yet! Don’t you guys have a plan for this? Do you know a place where you could hide the kids while Luffy and I go to figure out who caused the alarm and get rid of the danger?”

It took a few seconds for Deuce to collect himself enough to speak. “There is a place we’re supposed to go to to hide, but-“ Once again, he was cut off as the door to the library was thrown open.

Ace pushed Deuce behind himself with his left hand, raising his right hand to ready an attack, flames already licking over his skin. Whoever it was, Ace would burn the entire school before he let them get a single hit on Luffy.

“Good, you’re all still here and safe.”

It was just Marco. Thank fuck. Ace lowered his arm, forcing the flames back under his skin where they were supposed to be.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure, but apparently we have at least four intruders, they’re currently in the main building. Deuce, you know where the school’s hidden room is, right? Lead everyone there.”

Deuce, still partially hidden behind Ace and gripping his arm way too tightly, nodded.

“You’re gonna go fight the bad guys, right, pineapple head?” Luffy was clearly excited at the prospect. “Me and Ace can go too! We’re strong, we can take on anyone!” Exactly! But before Ace could voice his support for Luffy’s reasoning, Marco had already turned to his brother with a smile on his face.

“I know. But if you leave, who will protect your friends? We might lose sight of an intruder, or there might be more.”

Luffy turned to look at all the kids he befriended over the past week, clearly considering Marco’s reasoning. Said pineapple head turned back to Ace. “Ace, I’m leaving you in charge. Make sure everyone gets to the hideout quickly and safely, and make sure nobody runs off trying to play the hero. Some of these kids do have powerful mutations, but they’re just children. They’ll just end up getting hurt, and I hate seeing their small bodies in my hospital beds.”

Fuck, this was unfair. Ace wanted to protest, he wanted to go fight, wanted to find out what was happening and do something about it, but how could he be so childish and selfish when Marco so obviously trusted him to be the responsible adult these kids needed?

He couldn’t.

“Got it. You can leave it to me.”

“Good. I’m sure we can handle this, but if someone does show up and tries to attack you, no need to try and hold back. Incinerate them without worrying about property damage or keeping them alive. Nothing is more precious than your life, and those of the ones you’re protecting.”

Marco looked Ace directly into the eyes. When had he gotten so close? Why was his gaze so intense? Why couldn’t Ace turn away or break the eye contact?

He nodded, ever so slightly, and Marco smiled. “I’m counting on you.”

With that, he turned around and left, clearly hurrying to the main building where the intruders were.

Ace stayed frozen on the spot. What was this weird feeling?

“W-will we be okay?”

Right. The kids. Ace turned around to look at the girl who had spoken. She was already taller than Ace by a head, despite looking at least ten years younger than him. Her legs were shaking, even though she tried to keep a brave face. What was her name again? Mochi? No, that wasn’t quite right, that was just food… Whatever.

“Of course.” Ace gave her his brightest grin. “If anyone dares to show up, I can easily take care of them, but I’m sure Marco and the others will catch the intruders long before they can even get close to any of us. And then they’ll brag all about it at dinner, making themselves sound way cooler than they actually were.” He turned to Deuce. “Come on, let’s get to that hiding place, no point staying here where I’ll end up burning all the books the next time someone shows up out of the blue.”

Thankfully, all the kids followed them without trying to run off, and none of them started crying either. Deuce looked a little calmer too, reassured by how clearly Ace wasn’t afraid at all. He quickly led everyone to a hidden trapdoor that led to a single basement room.

Once he was sure everyone was inside and nobody had been watching them, Ace slid inside as well, locking the door behind him.

Now all they could do was wait, and hope the next person to knock on this door would be one of Whitebeard’s people, and not someone trying to kill them.

But that was fine. Ace could deal with that. He’d been in more dangerous situations than this.

No, the one thing that kept him on edge were Marco’s words. _Nothing is more precious than your life._ How could he just say that? And with such a serious look on his face too!

Ace didn’t know how much time they spent in that basement, waiting with bated breath, but his heart didn’t stop beating wildly in his chest the entire time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> does this count as a cliffhanger?  
> I wonder if anyone can guess who managed to sneak in~


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dealing with the intruders is stressful, but the aftermath of it even more so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back to work after the holiday break, so chapters are probably gonna be a bit slower to update from here on out, sorry.  
> Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

_They split up. One of them just ran from the kitchen, go there_.

Marco’s phone vibrated with the text message from Haruta the moment he entered the main building, and he didn’t waste any time asking for more details, just spread his wings and jumped up the stairs in one go.

The hallway leading to the kitchen was thankfully just one straight corridor with no way of escaping unless you wanted to jump out of the window, so spotting the intruder was easy.

It was a blonde guy wearing a black suit, but Marco didn’t exactly get a good look of him immediately. Rather than slowing down when he saw someone standing in the hallway, the intruder only upped his pace, jumping forward when Marco was in his range and launching a kick aimed at his head.

Not wanting to let him through by backing away, Marco blocked the kick with his arm, but it was more powerful than he’d expected. He could actually feel his bone crack right below the wrist.

Ow. Thankfully, it only hurt for a second or so, as his phoenix fire immediately healed the damage.

With a grin, Marco turned his blocking arm around to grab the leg that hit it, surprising the intruder. It wasn’t all that difficult to get him off-balance from there, slamming him into the wall first, and then onto the ground as he stumbled from the impact.

Marco didn’t waste any time from there, he let go of the leg, moving forward and grabbing one of the intruder’s arms to twist it behind his back. The guy grunted in pain, but even face-first on the floor and with Marco’s entire weight holding him down, he didn’t stop struggling.

“Let me go,” he demanded, and as the intruder twisted his neck to glare at his captor, Marco got a decent look at his face for the first time.

It was just a teenager.

With the suit, Marco had expected a government agent, backed up by the lack of mutant powers in his attacks, but even the government wouldn’t let a teenager perform important and dangerous missions like infiltrating Whitebeard’s home.

But then who was this guy, how did he know about this place, and what did he want here?

“Oh, you got him already, nice.” Thatch came walking down the hallway at a relaxed pace. Marco rolled his eyes at him.

“Yes, thanks for the help. I can only assume he didn’t try to destroy anything in the kitchen?” If he had, no matter what, Marco was sure Thatch would’ve come running after him like a madman.

“Nope, didn’t even notice him at first. He was just looking around.” That pretty much confirmed to Marco that the intruders were looking for some _one_ – as opposed to some _thing_ – because a person could reasonably be found in the kitchen, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of place you’d expect valuables to be hidden.

Specifically, if they knew anything about Ace and/or Luffy, the kitchen was a _very_ reasonable place to look for them.

“Can you at least get me some rope or something? I don’t want him to run away the moment I let go.”

“Don’t be so grumpy, I did try to see if he was a mutant before he got out of the kitchen, but he’s not.” Good. Humans were a lot easier to predict than a mutant you didn’t know. Whenever you thought you’d seen everything, some weirdo would bust out powers you couldn’t have considered in your wildest dreams. If this wasn’t even a government agent, the probability of him having some kind of crazy anti-mutant weapon was also low, but Marco would still check once Thatch got him something to restrain the guy.

As Thatch went to get restraints, the intruder kept struggling to get free, trying to land kicks even from his position on the floor. “Get off of me! I swear, if you did anything to my friends, you’re all done for!”

Talking really big, huh. Just where did he get the confidence for that? “Calm down,” Marco tried to reassure him, “as long as your friends don’t put up a fight, we won’t hurt them. Makes it easier to talk to you afterward.”

“Stupid mosshead is definitely gonna put up a fight,” the intruder grumbled under his breath, but he did calm down a little, perhaps realizing he was getting nowhere with this.

Marco took the opportunity to look out of the window, having caught movement there out of the corner of his eye a little earlier but not enough to identify what was going on. Now he could see a boy running across the grass, Vista sprinting behind him, both swords out.

It took a good three minutes of pursuit and more missed attacks than Marco would let Vista live down quietly, but eventually, a burst of flower petals did hit the fleeing boy’s back, and seconds later he was stumbling and falling over, letting Vista pick him up easily. The intruder got slung over Vista’s shoulder like a limp sack of potatoes and carried back to the Moby.

That left two intruders that Marco knew nothing about, though he was almost certain his phone would tell him their status if he could pull it out and read the messages he kept getting.

But Marco resisted until Thatch came back about a minute later, carrying some rope. “Tie his feet first, he kept kicking me,” Marco instructed, and Thatch complied.

“We got them all, by the way, it’s just four teenagers apparently. I passed Vista with one of them on my way back, at least that one’s not a mutant either.”

Once Thatch had securely tied the boy’s hands behind his back, Marco dared to get up, pulling the intruder up with him, then shoving him towards Thatch. “You get him to Pops, I’m gonna get Aisa and tell the kids everything’s fine.” Haruta would send a text telling everyone, but it was probably still better if they heard it from someone personally.

* * *

Back at the school, nobody was out of the hideout yet, so Marco squatted down next to the hidden trapdoor and knocked on it. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal Ace’ face, with Luffy and a few other curious kids behind him.

“See?” Ace sent a smug grin over his shoulder. “Told you it would be just Marco.”

The kids looked almost disappointed. Rude brats, all of them. “Aww, I was looking forward to a cool fight,” Pepper complained.

“Sorry, all the cool fights are already over, all the intruders are captured, and nobody really got hurt. Turns out they weren’t all that strong.” Marco had checked his texts on the way, the only one with any injuries on their side was Blenheim who sported a few cuts, but nothing too serious.

Deuce breathed a sigh of relief from the back of the group, along with Onion and Rika in his arms.

As everyone started getting out of the room, Ace found Marco’s gaze. “So… What did they want? Who are they?”

All Marco could offer him was a shrug. He hadn’t even asked. “No idea, but I’m pretty sure nobody important sent them. Figured asking would make more sense if we had our lie detector with us.” Marco looked at Aisa, who was stretching next to Chimney. “If you’re up for it?”

The little girl grinned at him. “Of course! I’m not scared of some intruders, I’m a brave warrior! I would’ve captured them myself if you’d let me!” Yeah, no, the guy he’d fought had broken his arm with a single kick, he wouldn’t let Aisa near any of them if they weren’t securely tied up.

“Lie detector?”

Ah, right. Ace didn’t know about Aisa’s mutation. Only the obvious wings, not the ability to hear people’s inner voices, which were apparently similar to thoughts but not quite the same. Marco couldn’t say he fully understood it himself, but he knew it was better not to broadcast Aisa’s ability. Nobody liked having someone else know what was going on in their head. Especially someone as generally distrustful as Ace. Aisa was just a kid, she didn’t need people avoiding her just for what she could potentially do.

“Yeah, her powers let her know when someone is trying to lie to her. It’s pretty useful.”

“But you’re still not gonna let me come with you, right?” The disgruntled pout on Ace’ face made it really difficult to tell him he was right.

“Ace… This is just a guess based on their actions, but it seemed like they were looking for someone. I just don’t think it’s smart to let them see you or Luffy before we know who they were looking for and why. You’re not their only possible targets, but the most recent ones, so…”

“Don’t worry, Ace,” Aisa interrupted before Ace could answer, “you just protected everyone, now it’s my turn to protect you. You can count on me!” She puffed out her chest, bumping her fist against it to convey how reliable she was.

“…Thanks.” Ace smiled at Aisa, but it turned into a frown when he looked back up at Marco. Ah, the advantages of being a cute child… Marco was only a little jealous. “You _will_ tell me if they’re looking for us. Even if they’re not, I want to know who they are.”

“Of course,” Marco assured him, “I was planning on telling you anyway if they were after you, you need to know, besides, you may have information that can help us.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Aisa piped up, “but he’s also planning to leave out stuff if he needs to!”

He hadn’t even _thought_ that! …Even if it was the truth.

“Hey,” he complained to Aisa, “you’re not supposed to tell people when I’m hiding things. Don’t you know that’s rude?” She just stuck her tongue out to him and started to giggle. Ace, thankfully, didn’t get mad and instead joined Aisa by laughing.

It was a really nice sound, and only now did Marco realize that he hadn’t actually heard Ace laugh before. Yes, he’d grinned, and snorted, but not outright laughed. Not like this. Maybe Marco should assign Ace babysitting duty more often. He wanted to hear more of this.

Sadly, it was over pretty quickly. “Guess I’ll have to have Aisa there to tell me when you’re leaving things out later, huh? That’s fine with me.” He high-fived the girl, and Marco couldn’t bring himself to be upset that Ace might learn more than Marco wanted him to.

Maybe there would be nothing to hide, anyway.

* * *

They found a few people standing in the entrance hall, in front of the door to Pops’ room. Including Izou. Marco narrowed his eyes at him. “And what are you doing out of bed?”

“I’m doing _great_ ,” Izou shot back, “gathering information is _my_ job. I’ll sit down if you insist, and I’m sure all of you can deal with possible attacks from four human teenagers whose weapons we took away before they reach me.”

Well. They could, but that wasn’t really the point. “I do insist.” But wait. “They had weapons?”

“Yup,” Haruta confirmed, “all of them except the one you fought. One had a wooden staff, one had three swords, and one had a slingshot. He managed to get Kingdew with a rotten egg with it, it was pretty fucking funny. He’s showering right now, that’s why he’s not here.”

“I took that one out,” Vista declared proudly.

Marco just raised his eyebrows. “You did, but I saw you miss him about 15 times before that. And all he did was run away.”

“Wait,” Thatch interrupted everyone’s laughter, “I saw the three swords, but one guy had all of them? Not three of them had a sword each?”

“Yup,” Haruta confirmed, “three swords for one guy. One in each hand, and one in his mouth.”

“How do you fight with a sword in your mouth?” It was Izou who asked the question, but Marco couldn’t deny that he was curious to see how that worked too. “And who would use swords anyway when guns exist and are more easily available?”

“Vista does,” Jozu offered helpfully.

“Yeah, but Vista is an idiot,” Haruta countered.

“I thought we established that decades ago,” Thatch agreed.

Vista’s face was priceless. “You guys realize I’m right here, right?”

“Yup.” “Yes.” “Of course.”

“I hate all of you.”

As much as Marco enjoyed listening to his siblings bicker, they actually had some intruders to question. He turned to Aisa. “Are you ready? Remember the code?”

Aisa nodded, reaching for Marco’s hand. “One tap for a truth, two for a lie, three if it’s true but they’re leaving stuff out.”

“Perfect.”

Once the actually went into the room, they found Pops looking very amused, with Jiru at his side, way less sure and clearly not as amused.

As for the intruders, the one Vista got was laying on the ground, curled up into a ball and crying, murmuring how they were all going to die. The other three were yelling at each other.

“This is all YOUR fault! My plan was perfect, but you directionless idiot had to get lost immediately! I should’ve just gone on my own!”

“Don’t blame me! If you hag could properly explain what we were supposed to do, this wouldn’t have happened! And you can barely fight! If you hadn’t been in my way, I would’ve sliced that guy into pieces!”

“That’s no way to talk to a lady, shitty mosshead! Want me to kick your face in?”

“I’d love to see you try, stupid eyebrow cook!”

“Can’t you guys stop yelling the same three insults at each other for five minutes? Some of us are trying to think of a way to get out of here!”

“My apologies~ I’ll do whatever you say~”

“Tsk.”

This was going to be a fun interrogation.

“Alright kids.” Whitebeard’s booming voice brought silence to the room immediately. The teenagers clearly assumed they were being addressed, though Marco was pretty sure his Pops meant everyone in the room, including the ones like him who were past 40 by now. “Now that everyone’s here, I think it’s about time we have a little talk.”

Despite Pops’ casual tone, the intruders all tensed up visibly. The one that had already been crying earlier looked like he was about to hyperventilate. He looked the youngest out of the four, and Marco figured it would be best to keep an eye on him and perhaps remove him from the situation if his obvious fear would develop into a full-blown panic attack. They needed to be as safe as possible in the current situation, but he’d feel bad if they ended up traumatizing a kid in the process.

As everyone went to stand by Pops’ side, Izou sat himself cross-legged before the intruders. “There’s no need to be so scared, we just have a few questions for you, and if you answer truthfully, we might even answer some of yours in return.”

“What if we don’t answer?” It was the one who’d been labelled as mosshead who answered, not missing a beat. “You can’t make us.”

“We won’t force you,” Izou simply answered, “but if you refuse to tell us anything, we can’t resolve this situation, and we can’t let you go. I’d rather prefer it if we didn’t have to hold you captive, that’s not really our style.”

“Liar!” The crying one had at some point uncurled himself from a sobbing ball on the floor, and was now hiding behind the ‘stupid eyebrow cook’ as he threw his accusation at Izou. “You’re a bunch of kidnappers, you can’t fool us!”

The single tap from Aisa told Marco that the kid at least believed this to be the truth, which wouldn’t make the situation any easier.

Izou didn’t seem to mind, though, his expression never changing. “So would I be correct to assume you’re here to look for someone we’ve supposedly kidnapped?” While he was technically making it an open question to everyone, Izou was looking only at the one girl of the group. During their bickering earlier, Marco had identified her as the brain behind this, and apparently Izou had done the same.

“No.” Her voice sounded perfectly sure, and Marco might have actually believed her, if it weren’t for the immediate two taps against his palm. “We’re a group of thieves. You’ve got quite a few things we want. We’ve been planning this for a while, but looks like the time wasn’t right yet…”

That actually got three taps. Huh. “So,” he started before Izou could say something again, “you had a plan to steal something from us, which you knew would probably fail because you weren’t finished with it, but you went through with it anyway, because you’re looking for someone you think we kidnapped.”

If this was a rushed operation, it really left only Ace and Luffy, though the question remained why the kid was convinced they’d been kidnapped.

Izou smiled at the intruders, who were starting to look uncomfortable at having been seen through so easily. “Now, I have a pretty good guess who you’re looking for, but it would still be great if you could tell us yourself, along with what you want from them.”

The four intruders were looking at each other, clearly trying to figure out what to do next without being able to talk to each other in secret.

It was, once again, the youngest one who spoke up. Still from his hiding place, but he was looking to be braver than Marco had originally thought. “We’re here to save our friend Luffy and his brother Ace! I know you kidnapped them because I saw your pet bird carry Ace away while he was unconscious and Luffy running after it!”

One tap.

Ah, so _someone_ had seen, but it was just one of Luffy’s friends, thankfully. Really, it would’ve been too much luck to be entirely unnoticed that day.

“ _Pet bird_ ,” Thatch snorted next to him, and Marco quickly delivered a casual kick to his shin.

The intruder didn’t seem to hear it. “We were going to do this stealthily,” he announced, “but I guess it can’t be helped. Hand them over, or I’ll send my 8000 men after you!”

Marco didn’t need the two taps in his palm to figure out that was a lie. He was pretty sure not a single person in the room believed it.

Pops laughed heartily behind him. “Bring them on, boy, 8000 men are nothing to us.”

The poor boy let out an inhuman screech, throwing himself on the ground behind his friends, arms over his head to protect himself.

“Pops, you’re scaring him to death,” Marco scolded his father. These kids weren’t threats, they were just a bunch of brave and stupid teenagers who were so loyal they’d fight Whitebeard himself to save their friend. Luffy really had found himself some great friends. Even if they were all human.

“Let me have some fun now and then.” Really, sometimes Marco wondered who the kid was and who the father. “I doubt they’ll believe us that we didn’t harm their friends unless we bring the two here to tell them, so how about you go get them, Thatch?”

As Thatch scurried off, Haruta walked forward and sat himself next to the girl, putting an arm around her shoulder as if they were old friends. “Now, while we wait for your friends to show up, why don’t you go and tell me exactly how you managed to get in here without the bubble alerting us? You seem like a smart girl, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that lying to us is pointless.”

* * *

Astonishingly, the girl caved before Ace and Luffy burst in through the door.

They’d found a rough spot in the wall, put a large piece of paper into it, and then used the paper to lift the bubble up, climbing through the hole underneath the paper. It was stupidly simple, and Marco couldn’t believe nobody else – not on their side or any of their enemies – had ever thought of it before. It was too big of a blind spot to ignore now though, so Haruta, Curiel and Fossa would have to figure out a solution for it pretty soon.

For their honesty, Haruta untied all of the intruders, though once Luffy saw them maybe half a minute later, they were all tangled up and on the ground again, this time bound by rubbery arms instead of ropes. They looked much happier with that predicament than the previous one though.

Luffy introduced them all, and Marco took the opportunity to gently bully Usopp into never calling him a pet ever again, lest he wants to suffer the wrath of a phoenix.

Everyone was relaxing quickly, but Marco couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. Even as Luffy’s friends were invited to stay for dinner and Sanji offered to help with making it in return, this was a temporary invite.

They were human, and they had homes and families to return to. Marco couldn’t justify wasting their precious resources on them. Besides, they didn’t even want to stay.

No, they were expecting to take the brothers back home with them.

Usopp lived in a protected, relatively mutant-friendly area, and with his father basically never home but sending money regularly, he had enough space and resources to house two more teenagers.

Even if ‘protected’ was basically guaranteed to mean ‘protected _by Shanks_ ’ in the East Blue, Marco couldn’t think of a single good argument to not let them go.

There was no reason to doubt Shanks’ ability to keep them safe, even if the marines were focusing their search on East Blue right now. It looked like he had already done that just fine, even if it was through Buggy, without letting the brothers know. And Shanks wouldn’t mistreat or use Ace for his powers, wouldn’t see him as a weapon or a potential danger. There were few adults this could be said of, and Shanks might be the only human among them, but Marco was sure.

If they wanted to go, he’d have to let them go.

But he didn’t want to.

That was the most confusing part. He’d brought the brothers here to keep them safe, and they were, but if they had a different place where they could be just as safe and happier, shouldn’t Marco be just fine letting them go? It would mean less work for him. Less danger for the entire family. But still.

Luffy was such a blinding presence, all the kids loved him, and Thatch loved him, and Marco knew things would never get dull with him around.

Ace… Ace was just starting to open up to them, but beneath all of his anger and distrust, there was a personality just as blinding as Luffy’s if not more so. His fire had a thrall to it that kept drawing Marco to him, wanting to reach out and touch it with his own. The searing heat was nothing like the gentle warmth of Marco’s feathers, but it felt just as safe while it promised power beyond anything Marco could ever achieve. Needless to say, Marco enjoyed their training sessions very much.

But he also enjoyed watching Ace laze around in the hospital while talking to Deuce with a lopsided smile. Liked watching him eat with the happiest expression on his face. Liked watching him yell at his brother for being careless. Liked the pouty face he made when he didn’t get his way.

Damn he would miss him. Them. Both of them. Not just Ace.

All of them went to Ace’ and Luffy’s room after a while to talk among themselves, leaving Marco with nothing to do but go back to the hospital and do his usual work. Blenheim was already gone by the time he got there, and the report about his injuries reassured Marco there was no problem.

Originally, he’d thought it was good that he’d managed to drag Izou back with him – he should rest no matter what he said, Marco was the doctor here – but constantly being subjected to his knowing smirks as Marco paced around wasn’t exactly a positive in Marco’s book. What did he even know, there was nothing _to_ know.

But Marco couldn’t deny the dread in his stomach when Ace showed up right as dinner was about to start. He looked unsure and uncomfortable, maybe even a little scared, so Marco swallowed down any of his own emotions and gave him a reassuring, calm smile.

“Um,” Ace started, “you’re the one responsible for us, so I figured I should let you know first…” He trailed off for a moment, and Marco had to fight to keep his cool exterior. He knew what was coming next, no need to overreact. “Luffy’s leaving, he says he wants to go with his friends. He already packed his stuff, they’re leaving once dinner is over.”

Marco blinked. “And you’re staying?” He couldn’t keep the surprise off his face or out of his voice. Maybe he’d had a tiny bit of hope that the brothers would stay, but he hadn’t expected them to separate at all.

“I…” It sounded like Ace was about to give an explanation, but in the end, he stopped himself. “Yeah. Unless you want me to go. And it’s still not permanent or something, just until I learn to control my powers how I want to! Don’t get any wrong ideas!”

Ah, but judging by the gentle ruffle of fiery feathers wanting to fluff themselves up outside of his skin, Marco was getting all sorts of ideas, and he wasn’t quite ready to believe they were wrong.

Still, the smile on his face was purely genuine. “Of course not. Come on, let’s go grab dinner before your brother eats all of it on his own. Thatch probably wants to throw him a send-off party too, which means there will be alcohol for the adults, and I can’t miss the chance to gather blackmail of my dear siblings.”

As Marco left the hospital, Ace’s familiar steps were behind him, still a little tentative and not as close as Marco would’ve liked, but he wouldn’t mind as long as they were still there.

Ace wanted to stay, and not just because it was his only option to stay alive and protect his brother.

Marco didn’t feel the need to explain the warm and happy feeling in his stomach when he thought that. It was fine to just feel it, for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> congrats to anyone who guessed the strawhats last chapter!  
> but it was really fun to read everyone's ideas! every single comment gives me life~


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleeping with the collar is still absolutely terrible, but living with the Whitebeards might not be so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter has a lot of flip flopping emotions tbh, it just turned out that way  
> WARNING: this chapter contains a single sentence that can be interpreted as suicidal ideation. it is not explicit and certainly not acted upon, thrown out immediately, basically, but still, if you are sensitive to the subject, tread carefully. just in case.

About an hour after Luffy left, Ace was already regretting his choice to stay.

The stupid collar was draining all his energy, leaving him exhausted but also so uncomfortable sleep was definitely out of his grasp. Even with the heater turned to maximum and a thick blanket covering him, shivers kept running over his body that was looking for warmth, no, _heat_ inside of him but found none.

He was so tempted to take it off. Luffy wasn’t sleeping next to him anymore, what did he care if he set the room on fire? He didn’t.

But Deuce was sleeping in this same house. And all of the kids. And Thatch. And _Marco_.

Stupid birdbrain who’d looked so stupidly happy when Ace said he’d stay. Like it was a good thing and not a potential danger. Like he actually wanted Ace to stay. Like he’d meant that stupid “Nothing is more precious than your life” line.

He didn’t know, though. Ace could never forget that. Even if Marco believed what he said now, he’d change his mind once he found out whose blood Ace was carrying. He’d be disgusted. Maybe even a little afraid.

Ace couldn’t allow himself to get too comfortable here.

But he didn’t really have anywhere else to go either, did he? Sure, Usopp had offered, but… Ace knew he’d feel out of place there. Usopp was Luffy’s friend, not his. He’d just be an outsider, draining the resources of a kid he barely knew and causing him trouble he couldn’t fully understand or anticipate.

Luffy’s friends were amazing people. They had goals, and having Ace around would only plummet their chances of stealing all the things they were aiming to get.

A sword, to regain the stolen memento of a dead friend.

100 million beri, to buy back the freedom of oppressed people.

A gun, not to use but to prove the ability to steal it, to gain respect.

A diary, full of memories, to repay a father.

A _brother_ , who’d been taken away too long ago, who deserved to be free just like all of them.

Ace had only asked to be included whenever they enacted their plan on that last one, because Sabo was his brother, too, and he’d do anything to get him back. But he wouldn’t stand in the way of Luffy’s dreams otherwise. Yes, he’d gotten strong, but not so strong that he could fend off all the marines that were still looking for Ace all over the city.

No matter how much Ace hated it, the way to keep Luffy safest and happiest was to stay away from him.

At least Whitebeard had given both of them old phones, so they could call and text occasionally. But they had to be careful, the government checked all messages sent for certain keywords, so there were quite a few things they couldn’t talk about if they didn’t want some government agent read everything they wrote. Ace was almost certain Luffy would forget that, so he had to use this sparingly, and wait for Luffy to come visit occasionally instead. He wouldn’t be surprised if Luffy lost or broke the phone, either.

It was for the best, but that didn’t make any of it any easier. It did nothing to soothe the anxiety of having Luffy out of his sight for such long stretches of time, and it didn’t make it any easier to stay with these strangers that were just one careless sentence away from hating him.

If only Luffy didn’t care so much about him, then Ace could just disappear instead of having to deal with all of this bullshit.

_Nothing is more precious than your life_.

It sounded almost like a scolding to remember that stupid sentence now. Why couldn’t he get it out of his head? Why couldn’t he get _Marco_ out of his head?

Stupid Marco who kept saying weird shit. Who always left his shirt hanging open, even though it was still February. Who clearly had way too much fun teasing all the people he called his younger siblings. Who seemed to have limitless patience.

Whose fire burned in all the ways Ace’s didn’t. Gentle. Healing. Soft. Sheltering. It drew Ace in, making him want to reach out and take cover from the world underneath one of Marco’s wings.

He still remembered the fascination from eight years ago, when he’d seen Marco flying above the city in the distance for the first time like a mythical guardian.

After all that time, he’d finally swooped down from his high vantage point to save Ace, just like the rumours circulating among the city’s orphans said he would.

Fucking damn it. Ace needed to stop thinking all of these embarrassing thoughts, or he would never go to sleep. A glance to the clock told him it was past 3am by now. He could forget a good night’s sleep already, but training would be even less fun if he didn’t sleep at all.

With a sigh, Ace reached to the back of his neck, opening the lock on the collar and pulling it off. No point suffering if he wasn’t going to sleep anyway.

Instead, he pulled the blanket off, the need for it quickly dissipating as his fire sizzled back to life under his skin. He didn’t mind his bare feet hitting the chilly floor anymore, so he made his way over to the window. It overlooked the entire Whitebeard estate, showing him now empty, dark paths. Only a few lights were still burning, but he could still see plenty, the endless constant dim light from the city permeating the estate as much as it permeated every other place Ace had ever been to.

Ace looked up to the sky. There was nothing to see there, just pure black and the dim light of the moon shining through the smog the city always produced.

An eternity ago, Garp had held Ace in his arms late at night when he couldn’t sleep, and told him about the stars. How they were little lights twinkling in the night sky once you got away from all the bright city lights. How they were actually huge, and just unimaginably far away. How there were more of them than people living in the city. How ever since ancient times, people had looked up to them and told each other stories about them.

One day, Garp had promised, he’d take Ace away from the city, so he could see the stars.

These days, Garp probably wanted him dead, or at least safely collared and contained.

Ace still had never seen any stars.

But a different light shone through the darkness, descending through the clouds and the bubble, blue and golden, and still just as majestic as the first time Ace had seen it. He couldn’t stop staring as the giant blue bird landed in front of the building Ace was watching him from, casually turning back into a human.

What was Marco doing up at half past three?

He entered the main building, not having noticed Ace watching him from his entirely dark room, so he was probably about to go to sleep, reminding Ace he should at least try and do the same.

Even snuggling himself safely underneath the blanket, he hated the chill from the collar, but this time, he managed to fall asleep, dreaming of a light blue flame flickering in an endless sea of darkness.

* * *

The next morning, Ace was anything but rested, and it definitely showed in his attempts to control his fire. It would’ve been nice if feeling exhausted would’ve dimmed the fire, but no, all it did was making it even more unruly and harder to tame.

Marco definitely noticed, and called it off earlier than usual. “Something the matter?” His voice was laced with concern, giving Ace mixed feelings. Why did it have to seem like Marco genuinely cared about him? But he couldn’t go and tell the guy he’d been laying awake thinking about him, that would be way too embarrassing.

“Just didn’t sleep well,” he settled on, “I blame the shitty collar. Feels like I’m freezing with the damn thing on.”

“Well, it’s winter, there’s no way it won’t be a little cold… Gotta bundle up.” It would have sounded sensible, if they weren’t walking around outside, Ace in shorts and a t-shirt, Marco wearing sandals and of course not having closed the buttons on his shirt, to show off the tattoo on his chest. As it was, it was pretty funny. “Maybe try to take Luffy’s blanket too? But Fossa should have a prototype ready soon, hopefully that’ll get rid of the need for the collar.”

“He better,” Ace grumbled, “I’m fucking sick of this shit.”

Marco seemed a little too amused for Ace’ liking. Also way too awake and chill for how little he’d slept. “Makes sense. But watch your language when you’re on babysitting duty, if Pops finds out you taught the kids bad words, the only duty you’ll get for the next month is toilet cleaning duty.”

“Hmph, I don’t see why kids shouldn’t know how to say fuck. It’s a very useful word.”

Marco made a noise that could only be described as a giggle, and Ace had to restrain the heat in his cheeks from actually bursting into flames. What the _fuck_?! How could an old man make such a cute noise? (See? A very useful word.)

“On your own responsibility, teach them whatever you like, I won’t stop you, but I’m also not gonna help you afterwards.”

Ace got the feeling Marco would very much enjoy the ensuing chaos, no matter how responsible he pretended to be.

“Maybe I will. We’ll see.” Not knowing what else to say, Ace returned to the question he’d already had in mind earlier. “How come you’re not tired, though?”

“Me?” Marco looked surprised. “Why would I be tired?”

“Because you were awake until like half past three? I was still up, I saw you, no point denying it. So what were you doing?”

For a second, it looked like Marco was going to deflect the question or refuse to answer, but maybe Ace just imagined it, it was gone pretty soon and there was nothing in Marco’s voice when he did talk that would suggest it. “I told you, I don’t need to sleep, my phoenix powers will heal exhaustion and all the other stuff sleep is supposed to heal. Though it’s still healthier if I sleep, and someone always finds out if I didn’t and nags me about it. So I usually just sleep a few hours a night.”

…Okay, maybe Ace was a little jealous right now. Not needing to sleep, or just being able to cut sleep hours to a minimum with none of the incredibly shitty effects Ace was suffering at the moment? Absolutely insane. So practical. Marco really had gotten the winning prize when spinning the mutant power lottery at birth. Probably didn’t even realize how lucky he was, judging by the usual bored look on his face.

“Usually, that means I can patrol the city at night,” Marco continued, entirely unaware of Ace’ internal jealousy rant, “you know, make sure no kids get caught up in all the violence that happens once the sun is down, and all the good respectable citizens go to bed. Sometimes we get tips on where marine raids are planned, so I can help other mutants get away from them. Though last night, I was mostly just stitching a stubborn brat back together.”

“A stubborn brat?” Ace realized Marco had never really talked about any work he did, though Ace had known he did more than just work at the hospital.

Marco grinned. “Actually, he’s about your age, but his name is Kid, and I’m gonna make fun of him for that until he starts acting like an adult. The guy lives on the very outskirts of the city, and while his mutation allows him to control metal through magnetism which is super powerful, he just doesn’t know how to pick his battles. He picks all of them, all the time. With the marines, the police, the local gangs, random strangers, even us, it doesn’t matter to him. Every now and then, it goes predictably horrible for him, and then his friends call me to make sure he survives, but he won’t accept any help from us when he’s not unconscious, so most of the time we just leave him be.”

Wow, what an idiot. Ace was known to not run from fights he should probably run from, but at least he didn’t actually pick fights if he could avoid it most of the time, even if he kinda wanted to. It would risk Luffy’s safety.

“Wait, you help him even though he fights you sometimes?”

They reached the hospital, and Marco held the door open for Ace. “Yeah, sure. He’s got some anger issues, but he’s also got a bunch of very good reasons to be angry. We’ll fight him for real if he ever develops into a serious concern, but until then, Pops thinks it’s better to be nice, that has a higher chance of getting him on the right path to being a happy, healthy adult rather than a powerful threat to us. And I’m inclined to agree.”

Knowing that Deuce was on cleaning duty that day, Ace made a beeline for Marco’s office. He felt like collapsing into a bed, and he knew there’d be one there, just waiting for him, and he could lay there and keep talking to Marco.

He was, of course, kidding himself. Not even a minute after falling into the bed, he was sound asleep.

* * *

Marco let him sleep until lunch – correctly figuring Ace didn’t want to miss a meal no matter how tired he was – after which he was marginally more awake and didn’t mind being dragged off by Chimney to go play outside.

That little girl had apparently limitless energy and didn’t even notice how cold it was, but Ace had more than one kid to babysit, so after a good two hours of playing outside, he noticed a few of them were getting tired and complaining about the cold, so he ushered everyone inside. It would definitely take some getting used to, looking out for kids other than Luffy. All of them seemed to like him for some reason, but Ace had no idea how to approach any of the shy kids, really. Chimney was definitely the easiest, her brand of energetic crazy was pretty similar to Luffy’s.

But Ace did his best to at least listen to the other kids too, especially since nobody else was around this time, no Deuce to help him out today, as quite a few mutants who lived outside the estate had shown up with severe flu symptoms at the hospital during lunch. Deuce had grumbled about them waiting until the whole extended family was sick rather than just sending the first person to get it before they could infect anyone else. Of course, that wasn’t his fault, but now Ace had to deal with the kids on his own, and he didn’t even know everyone’s names.

Mocha – not Mochi, as Ace had guessed – suggested drawing as the next group activity, and since nobody really objected and it was a calm activity that didn’t require any of the tired kids to move, Ace approved.

Thankfully the kids knew where to get supplies for drawing, and Ace knew which kids he could leave to draw wherever they wanted and which ones should go sit at the crafts table that was already full of coloured stains, so it wouldn’t matter if a crayon went over the edge of the paper.

Before he knew it, Aisa had shoved a piece of paper at him too, just assuming he’d draw with them.

That hadn’t been part of his plan. But would the kids get upset if he refused? Would that be worth it? Who knew. Not him.

Ace stared at the blank piece of paper in front of him. To his left, Aisa had started out drawing a rainbow, while to his right, Chimney was going wild with a blue crayon, seemingly intent on colouring most of her drawing only in that one colour. That didn’t help. What the hell was he supposed to draw?

Being an adult, Ace just went to grab a random coloured pencil rather than a crayon. It was yellow.

The first vaguely yellow object he could think of was Luffy’s strawhat, so he grabbed himself a red pencil too and started on that. Not like it would matter what exactly he drew.

With no confidence in his drawing skills and also not having positioned the hat very smartly on the page, Ace opted out of actually drawing Luffy to go along with it, and instead grabbed a black pencil and added Sabo’s stupid top hat, goggles and all. And since nobody else seemed to be done, he added his own cowboy hat as well.

Now the page was pretty full, and some of the kids were running to him to show off their own drawings as well, so Ace figured it was good enough. It was awkward, drawing after years of not even considering it even if he had the time or the money for drawing supplies, but maybe it had even been a little fun. Perhaps… nostalgic? Yeah, that was the word, Sabo would be proud he remembered it.

Chimney, cluelessly, ruined that feeling with a single, yelled sentence. “Let’s go show Pops!”

“What?” Ace definitely didn’t want to go see Whitebeard unless absolutely necessary, and he definitely, definitely didn’t want to show him this random drawing Ace hadn’t even really put any effort or thought into. That would be way too embarrassing! “Won’t he be busy?” Honestly, Ace had no idea what the man did all day, but he was a criminal gang leader, essentially, surely he had better things to do than look at a bunch of crayon drawings?

“It’s fine,” Onion reassured him from across the table, “Pops always makes time for us, even when he’s busy. He loves seeing what we make!”

Well, it had been worth the try. “Alright, let’s go then, if everyone is done.” Ace took Chimney’s hand, making sure she didn’t run off on her own before everyone else, and watched everyone grab their pictures before they left. Maybe he could get away with just leaving his own on the table.

“Ace, you forgot your drawing,” Aisa called after him before he even left the room. So much for that. He took it from her with an internal sigh before making his way over to Whitebeard’s room.

Carrot and Pepper ran ahead a little, and they didn’t bother knocking, but Whitebeard didn’t seem to mind, even though he was clearly doing paperwork. “Sorry for the intrusion…” Ace was glad Makino had at least managed to teach him some basic manners, it came in handy sometimes.

“It’s quite alright, I’m always happy to see my children.” Whitebeard sounded genuine, but Ace still couldn’t help feeling nervous. Part of it he knew was irrational, he’d have attacked by now if he wanted to, plus he just let Luffy go without a problem so Ace really was pretty safe to assume he was allowed to leave as well, but… There was still the lingering fear he’d realize Ace was Roger’s son.

The kids all ran up to Whitebeard, holding up their drawings for him to see. “Look, Pops, I drew a sea train!” Chimney was yelling louder than everyone else, so Whitebeard took her picture first, inspecting it closer. “It’s like a train, but it goes over the sea instead! Deuce told me about it! When I grow up I wanna learn how to drive it!”

“A very nice drawing,” Whitebeard complimented her, “I’d love to catch a ride with the sea train if you’re driving it.”

“Yeah, I’ll take everyone! Look, one of the train cars is way bigger than the others! It’s so you and Mocha and Atmos and everyone can come too!”

Whitebeard ruffled her hair with a proud smile. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Chimney.”

“My drawing next,” Aisa announced, apparently unable to wait for her turn any longer, “Deuce told _me_ about Sky Islands!” Whitebeard handed Chimney’s picture back to her, taking Aisa’s instead, inspecting it closely as well.

“Islands in the sky… Since they’re above the clouds, it would never rain, sounds like the perfect place for a vacation.”

“It is! Legend says there’s a city of gold up there, but nobody has ever found it, so you can go on an adventure! A real treasure hunt! Apparently there’s a giant snake too, but if you came along, I bet we could easily beat that snake and search for the gold in peace. Once we find it, you won’t have to have boring meetings about the budget anymore! Everyone wins.”

“That’s a very smart idea,” Whitebeard praised her, “I will tell Marco to keep his eyes open for a Sky Island to have an adventure on.”

It continued on like that, every child showing their drawing to him one by one, and he’d look at each of them, praise them somehow and talk about the ideas behind the drawing, no matter how silly or outlandish or boring they were. And yet it didn’t seem like Whitebeard was just humouring the kids, he looked truly happy to see all the artwork.

Was that how a father was supposed to react? Since he’d never had one, Ace wasn’t sure. Dadan had kept everything he, Sabo and Luffy made, but she hadn’t ever talked to them about their creations, and Ace barely even remembered showing her anything.

It was kind of sweet to watch, until all the kids were done showing off their pictures, and all of their eyes found him simultaneously. “It’s your turn now, Ace!”

His turn. With all those expectant eyes on him and no real reason to refuse – it was just a picture after all, one Ace didn’t really care about – he hesitantly made his way over to Whitebeard. Damn, this was weird as hell. Embarrassing, too. Why didn’t a single one of these kids get that?

“You don’t have to show me, if you don’t want to.” Now, theoretically, Whitebeard giving him such an obvious out, with no judgement in his voice, was exactly what Ace wanted and needed to get out of this stupid situation.

Theoretically. In practice, refusing to show the damn picture was just as weird and embarrassing as showing it, and when faced with such a situation, Ace always assumed he’d be more likely to regret not doing the thing rather than doing it, so he held out his paper to Whitebeard.

“Whatever. It’s just some drawing, I didn’t try to make it good or anything and I just drew whatever came to mind. Not a big deal whether you see it or not.”

Despite Ace’ words, Whitebeard took the drawing very carefully, and examined it with the same attention he’d given all the kids. “This is Luffy’s strawhat, isn’t it? It’s very admirable that you always think of your little brother first.” At the old man’s comment, Ace could feel a blush rising to his cheeks. He’d never thought he deserved any sort of praise for loving Luffy and taking care of him, it was just natural. It was impossible to not love Luffy, and any older brother would do what he did. Sabo probably would’ve done a better job, too. Still, it… didn’t feel horrible to hear it. “Do the other hats belong to him, too? Does he collect hats?”

“Ah, no,” Ace answered without thinking, “Luffy only ever wears that one hat, it’s his treasure. The cowboy hat is mine, I wear it most of the time, but I didn’t really plan on going out that day… I don’t know what happened to it, but Luffy said he’s gonna try and get our stuff soon.”

“I hope he finds your hat then. It looks very unique, I think it suits you perfectly.” Whitebeard handed back the drawing after looking it over once more, surprisingly not asking after the last hat. “Do you enjoy drawing? If this is the result when you don’t try, I’d love to see what you can accomplish when you do try.”

Ace looked at his drawing sceptically. Sure, it was better than what most of the kids had produced, but not by much. He certainly was no artist. That wasn’t a skill he’d felt was necessary to hone. “I don’t hate it, but I don’t especially like it either,” he eventually settled on as an answer.

“I see,” was all he got in return, but he wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Nothing, really.

“Ace, Ace,” Chimney drew attention to herself once again, “can we go back outside now? I wanna play some more!”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Chimney looked thoughtful for a second, but then shook her head. Ace sighed. “Yes, you are. All the drawing equipment is still scattered around. Nobody plays anything until everything is cleaned up and put away!”

The kids all collectively groaned, and Ace could hear Whitebeard chuckling behind him as he ushered them out.

Well, this had gone… weird for sure. But it could’ve been worse.

* * *

Ace slept horribly again, but spent most of the next day on cleaning duty, where nobody really cared about his foul mood. But fuck, he hated cleaning even on a good day. Especially cleaning the mess hall was frustrating as all hell, because he knew it was going to be just as dirty, if not dirtier than before, right after the next meal.

But, after dinner, a man with a cigar approached him, and as the guy introduced himself as Fossa, Ace’s day was practically already made.

Finally, he could get rid of the stupid collar. Fossa instead presented him with a bracelet that could detect any sudden changes in temperature in its close vicinity. Not wanting to risk Ace destroying the mess hall with his uncontrolled powers, Fossa pulled out a torch, setting it aflame with his own fire powers while holding it close to Ace.

The bracelet immediately started beeping at a truly unholy noise level. Ace may have been a heavy sleeper, but this would wake up even him. Nobody could sleep through that, not even Luffy. Perfect.

That night, Ace left the collar off, and he almost slept through breakfast, but he felt much, much better. The bracelet didn’t even have to wake him.

Hopefully, things would get better from here.

* * *

And, well, they sort of did, but then, they also really didn’t.

It was hard to explain.

Over the next month, nothing that Ace could really qualify as _bad_ happened.

He got used to living with the Whitebeards. He learned the names of all the little kids, and spent plenty of fun afternoons babysitting them. Chimney and Aisa especially wormed their way into his heart, and he found himself supporting their shenanigans and playing pranks together with them. Having the local lie detector on your side was incredibly helpful in pleading innocence.

He also spent a lot of time hanging out with Deuce when they had free time, just talking most of the time. Often it was just about inconsequential things like Deuce’ newest favourite book or Ace’ favourite way to cook meat, but Ace also learned about the abusive shithead of a father Deuce had before running away from home and being picked up by Marco. In return, Ace didn’t reveal his biggest secret, but he did tell Deuce about Sabo, about how he still didn’t know what happened to his brother. Was he still stuck with his parents? Forcibly married off somewhere? Or had he gotten away and just couldn’t find Ace and Luffy again, who were in hiding? It was maddening to not know, but talking to Deuce made him feel a little better, at least.

Luffy was doing just fine too, texting Ace somewhat regularly, though he didn’t talk much about the adventures he went on with his friends, because Nami got mad every time he did, just in case someone was actually reading the messages. But he visited one time too, and brought Ace his hat, along with a few other clothes and some trinkets he kept. It definitely was nice to have the familiar weight of his hat back on his head, as well as the reassurance that he didn’t lose the most expensive gift Luffy ever bought him, and the one with the most meaning behind it. Luffy kept all of the utility stuff they owned, but that was fine with Ace, he didn’t need it right now.

While Ace never really warmed up to cleaning as an activity, he liked just about everything else he got to do. Helping Thatch in the kitchen was great, he found Thatch had a fantastic sense of humour, and Ace got to snack while working. Truly ideal.

But he enjoyed helping out Fossa too. Ace had worked in a repair shop before for about a year, and his skills were greatly appreciated in repairing whatever someone destroyed that day. Plus they were fire buddies, even if Fossa could only light up objects he was holding and would get burned if the fire touched himself. Close enough.

Even helping out with carrying heavy supplies from the delivery trucks was fun in its own right, Ace had never minded a good workout.

Every time he tried something new, Whitebeard would eventually ask if he enjoyed it, and while Ace wasn’t entirely sure why he did it, he could appreciate getting more of the chores he liked and less of the ones he disliked. At this point, he couldn’t even deny anymore that Whitebeard was a phenomenal father to everyone living with him, though he still wasn’t sure about the offer to accept him as his own. Would Whitebeard even want to be his father if he knew who else held that questionable title? Probably not. But the offer was still… well, more than Ace ever had.

And yet, despite all that, Ace’ control over his fire was getting worse by the day. The training rarely ever went decently, certainly never well. Most of the time, it was terrible. The fire only ever got more aggressive, lashing out in directions Ace couldn’t control anymore. And at night, he rarely ever slept a whole night through, often getting woken up by his bracelet multiple times.

Why? Ace had no idea. Even Marco seemed at a loss. He was clearly running out of things to try, and it showed.

Ace was doing _fine_. In fact, he was doing better than ever before! He had more safety, more food, and more people to care about than he ever had in his entire life.

So why did he feel so absolutely _miserable_?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that's a question marco will have to try and figure out next chapter~
> 
> btw, neither the sea train nor sky islands exist in this world, deuce just enjoys lying to children for their entertainment, and whitebeard isn't about to crush children's dreams by telling them these things are in fact made up


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco takes Ace on a trip to help him out, but everyone keeps thinking it's a date (it's not, tho! or is it?)  
> either way, the point is, it leads to Ace having an existential crisis in a takoyaki shop, and Marco can only do his best to try and help him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go, the longest chapter so far! I've been waiting to write the scene that takes up most of this chapter for ages and I like how it turned out, so I'm hoping you guys like it too!
> 
> WARNING: there is talk about children being murdered in this chapter. there is no graphic detail or named characters, but if you'd rather skip the passage, stop reading when marco asks if he can go on a gruesome tangent, and start reading again at the paragraph that starts with "Marco took a deep breath."
> 
> THERE IS NOW ART FOR THIS CHAPTER!! everyone go shower the amazing sinsajo in love for these beautiful pictures https://twitter.com/LombaxFloof/status/1355041739627704322?s=19

As February turned to March, flowers started sprouting along the paths across the Whitebeard estate as the cold lost its icy bite and rain drizzled onto the grass almost every day for at least a few hours. Marco had little time to enjoy the spectacle of nature himself, but it was nice hearing the children yell and laugh outside more and more even while he was stuck working inside.

Tensions in the city were still running higher than usual with Kaidou, Big Mom and especially the government entirely clueless about the new powerful fire mutant. With Shanks still claiming to know nothing, accusations on who was hiding him were flying around with no base whatsoever.

Not that it would be better if he were indeed hiding on his own, which would make his actions entirely unpredictable. Why would there only be the one incident? Was it truly a rescue? Was it a warning? An accident? Marco could easily admit he’d be way more nervous about the situation if he knew nothing about Ace. He’d love to call the old people stupid for not being able to forget Roger and the destruction he caused, but Marco would never be able to forget it either. It couldn’t be helped.

Shanks, at least, definitely had figured out who was behind the incident. Luffy had met with Buggy to get their belongings, and later had been questioned by Yasopp too – it had been unavoidable, with him living in Yasopp’s home now. Vista had immediately questioned Luffy’s safety and whether Usopp was trustworthy after learning this information, but there really was no reason to assume Luffy was in any danger besides Vista’s old grudge against Yasopp, so Marco ignored his concerns.

But Luffy had admitted to being unable to lie about Ace’s involvement in killing the marines and burning an entire street, so now Shanks at least knew who he was looking for, and that Ace didn’t pose as much of a threat as the others feared. Still, Luffy hadn’t told them where Ace was, even though he couldn’t hide that he knew.

It meant Ace was still perfectly safe as long as he stayed within the estate. But it also kept the tension high, and that meant more skirmishes than usual, which meant Marco had to go out and fight more than usual, but also work more at the hospital, because more of his siblings were injured fighting.

Which in turn left him with less time and attention for Ace, who clearly needed it. Not to mention, nothing about the situation would change until Ace could actually control his powers to a satisfying degree, at which point he’d choose between leaving like he said he would or staying indefinitely. Either way, they’d have a permanent answer to work with, unlike now, though Marco obviously would like it better if Ace chose to stay.

But that seemed far off, given the current situation.

Perhaps Marco wasn’t always the most honest man, but he could admit when he was out of his depth, and right now he definitely was. Ace seemed to be doing just fine in every aspect Marco could think of, and yet it seemed like he was getting worse by the day.

There was probably something fundamental that Marco was overlooking, but, well, even knowing that didn’t make it any easier to figure out what that fundamental thing was.

The only thing Marco knew was that doing their regular training wouldn’t lead to anything, and he really didn’t want to make Ace suffer through it again today. He clearly needed a different approach.

Well, if they were gonna skip training, might as well listen to Thatch’s advice and do something nice to make it worth it.

Marco made his way to breakfast after finishing everyone’s morning check-ups, easily spotting Ace in the crowd as the guy was still shovelling food into his mouth at a record pace only matched by mutants whose mutations actually helped with eating faster.

“Yo,” he greeted, not expecting any response, though Ace probably tried to return the greeting, but Marco couldn’t be sure. It was just a very indistinct noise leaving Ace’ mouth, completely incomprehensible with all the food in his mouth. Marco decided to ignore it. “Bring a jacket today.”

As he sat down to eat the omelette he’d picked up from the buffet, Marco could witness Ace slowing down his eating immediately, eventually managing to swallow everything in his mouth. “A jacket?”

He sounded so incredulous, Marco couldn’t help but snort. “Yes, a jacket. Preferably one a regular human would wear around this time of the year. I promise I’ll be wearing one, too.”

Ace still looked puzzled, but he agreed before getting back to his breakfast. Good.

Marco was done first, as per usual, and went to his room to grab a jacket as promised. He didn’t like covering up his tattoo, but it couldn’t be helped sometimes. On his way back down, he figured it was probably best to let Pops know about his plans, just in case something happened and someone would be looking for them, though of course he’d take his phone with him.

Of course, Pops noticed his unusual attire immediately. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yup, I’m skipping out on work today, and taking Ace with me.”

Pops answered his mischievous grin with his signature deep, rumbling laugh. “Gurararara, I’d be concerned you were mind-controlled or body-swapped or cloned, but you’re trying to help Ace, aren’t you? I’m concerned about him as well, so I hope whatever you have planned will do him some good.”

As usual, Pops saw right through him. “I’ve skipped work before, you know,” he grumbled. Not a lot, and not recently, but still.

“Not in the past decade, son. I’m glad Ace is a positive influence on you in that regard.”

…Had it really been a decade? Marco honestly didn’t know. He wanted to say it wasn’t true, but then, it probably was if he couldn’t even remember. “It’s not my fault everyone else skips out too much. And I’m still the only doctor we have, I can’t exactly be unavailable. Even today, definitely call me if there’s an emergency.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. Now, no more work thoughts! Go and have fun on your date!”

Marco could feel a blush creeping onto his cheeks against his will. “It’s not a date!” He knew that insisting only served to make him sound like a teenager with a crush, but he also didn’t know what to say to make it clear that while he did like Ace and thought he was cute, this actually really wasn’t a date.

Probably nothing that would actually convince Pops.

Better not think about it now. He had to meet up with Ace, and those kinds of thoughts weren’t helping anybody, not Marco and certainly not Ace. This was about helping him with whatever was bothering him.

It only occurred to Marco now that he hadn’t specified a place to meet up, so he just went to the training area where they’d meet if they were doing a regular training session.

It was a logical enough thought, and Ace clearly agreed, since he showed up not long after Marco, wearing a black leather jacket over his usual shirt.

Not a bad look on him. Not bad at all. Hot, even, if you were to make a pun.

Damn Pops for sending Marco’s thoughts in the entirely wrong direction to handle this.

Ace was, thankfully, entirely unaware of Marco’s internal conflict. Probably even perfectly oblivious to how handsome he looked right now. He certainly didn’t look like he was trying to seduce anyone, and his voice was perfectly casual when he spoke. “So, what’s up with these jackets?”

Marco had to sound casual, too. “We’re going out.” In his own, humble opinion, he was doing a good job.

“Going out?” Ace seemed genuinely surprised. No wonder, he hadn’t left the estate in over a month.

“Exactly. We’re sneaking out, skipping training and work and just having a nice day.”

Immediately, Ace perked up. “Really?” But then he tensed, obviously glancing over to the Moby. “It’s not gonna be a problem?”

Ah, so he was still not as trusting of Pops as Marco would like him to be. “Don’t worry, Pops wants me to neglect my responsibilities more often. And we mean it when we say you’re free to leave if you want.”

“You do work too much.”

Marco just rolled his eyes as he started walking towards the gates. “So everyone keeps telling me.”

“Well, if everyone is saying it, why don’t you listen and take more breaks?”

“Hmmm,” Marco hummed thoughtfully. “Because despite of what they’re saying, everyone still relies on me to get everything done? Besides, I like working. Sure, paperwork is boring a lot of the time, and fieldwork can get pretty gruesome on occasion, but it’s not like I’m doing it for nothing. I like taking care of the family we’ve built, even in boring ways. It makes me happy.”

For a while, Ace was quiet as they left the estate, staring at the sidewalk as he followed Marco’s lead without questioning it. Not wanting to interrupt his thoughts, Marco stayed quiet as well, setting a casual pace. They were in no hurry.

It took about ten minutes until Ace lifted his head and started looking around. “Where are we going?”

They were walking through a residential area. It was nice, showing its residents were wealthier than the average citizen, but still a long shot from the overwhelming luxury of the noble district. While there were a few pretty plants to look at in people’s gardens, the environment didn’t give Ace any hints as to where they were heading. “I wanted to show you one of my favourite places around here.”

“So it’s a secret?”

“It’s a surprise.” Marco realized Ace probably didn’t like being left in the dark too much, so he didn’t leave it at that. “If you don’t want to go in though, that’s fine too, I won’t force you or anything. I got a bunch of backup options.”

As expected, Ace looked happier after that little add-on. “How long until we get there?”

“About 15 minutes, maybe? It’s a bit of a walk, but I’ve been spending too much time inside, gotta take what chances I can get to get a little bit of sunshine. It’s supposed to start raining again in the afternoon, too.”

Ace hummed his agreement, clearly also happy to be out and about. Maybe keeping him in one place for so long had been a mistake, it was possible he still felt trapped even though they’d given him the option to leave whenever he wanted. After all, it wasn’t really a great option with the marines looking for him all over the city. Sure, nobody knew his name or face, but with his lacking control of his powers and everyone on high alert, the risk of getting caught was high, especially if he wanted to stay in one place for a while.

Hopefully this field trip would do him some good. For the rest of the walk, the conversation drifted away, and Marco got to hear what Ace had been doing yesterday. Apparently Thatch had been teaching him how to make cupcakes, which explained the random cupcakes for dessert yesterday. Ace had a ton of fun, but in the end, Thatch’s creations still looked much better than his own.

Marco couldn’t suppress a smile, now very happy he’d picked one of the uglier ones to let the kids have the really pretty ones. If only he’d known it was Ace’s creation then, he’d have enjoyed it more and taken a picture. Next time, he’d use his brain more to notice on time.

At least he could assure Ace his cupcakes had tasted fantastic, and really that was what mattered the most. Ace spluttered and blushed a little at the compliment, and once again Marco couldn’t help but think about how cute he was. He’d been thinking that a lot, recently. But it was true, what could he do about it?

They reached their destination a little faster than anticipated. Right at the edge of the residential district, nestled between homes and small shops on the other side.

“We’re here,” Marco announced, making Ace come to an abrupt halt, staring at the building in front of them.

“An aquarium?”

“Yes. It’s not very big or well-known, but it’s a calm and beautiful place once you get inside. It’s just a regular Wednesday too, with all the kids in school, there won’t be too many visitors. I like coming here when I need a break from all the chaos at home. So, what do you say? Wanna go inside, or wanna go look for something else?”

“I’ve never been to an aquarium,” Ace answered with a shrug. “Guess it won’t hurt to look at one.”

Good. Marco really hoped Ace would like it. Going in, the clerk selling tickets was looking bored, reading a book and making no effort to hide it. She put the book away when Marco approached, clearly recognizing him as a regular visitor. As Marco pulled out his membership card and the money to pay for Ace’ ticket, she raised her eyebrows at him. “How rare, you’re bringing a date.”

Why did everyone assume this was a date? Marco could feel an unnecessary blush rising in his cheeks again. “I’m bringing a friend.” He didn’t dare turn around and look at Ace. He must be embarrassed, too, being confused for the date of someone so much older than him. But Marco hadn’t wanted to outright deny it the way he had with Pops, knowing he’d sound way too defensive. It wasn’t like going on a date with Ace would be bad, or something Marco didn’t want to do, just that this wasn’t a date.

The clerk didn’t look convinced, but she shrugged and went back to her book after handing over Ace’ ticket. As Marco went to give it to Ace, he was definitely red in the face, and not meeting Marco’s eyes.

Great. They were off to an awkward start.

Fortunately, Ace was easily distracted. The exhibit started off with river fish, but the very first tank contained a few species of frogs and two turtles, and Ace was looking at them in wonder the moment he spotted them. Marco could practically see his eyes sparkle. _Cute_.

“You like turtles?” he asked, making Ace snap out of it really quickly.

“Just never seen real ones before. Luffy had an animal encyclopaedia, but all the facts about turtles in it sounded so fake… Wild that they’re real.”

Well, Marco hadn’t spent years coming to this aquarium without reading all the info sheets and special exhibit cards, so he knew some crazy turtle facts himself, and if it entertained Ace to know how their shells were attached to the rest of the body or how many species there were or how long some of them lived, Marco was sure to deliver.

As they slowly progressed through the aquarium, Ace called him a nerd multiple times for knowing so much, but he also was genuinely excited to actually hear all the fish facts, so Marco just smiled and took it in stride every time. There was no bite to the insult anyway.

It wasn’t exactly a huge aquarium, but they spent a lot of time exploring the two main floors, one focusing on freshwater and semi-aquatic animals, and one on the creatures of the sea. They passed a few other visitors occasionally, but since it was all divided into small rooms, most of the time, it was just the two of them. Marco at least was definitely enjoying the experience very much. And from what he could tell from the excited grin Ace was wearing most of the time, Ace was having fun, too.

Finally though, they made their way back down, and Ace actually looked pretty bummed that they were leaving. “Hey, Marco, the stairs go down, too. Is there more stuff down there? It looks pretty dark, though… Is it not for visitors?”

Ah, right, he almost forgot. “It’s small, but there’s some deep sea creatures down there. They’re not used to light, that’s why it’s so dark. They’re some of the weirdest animals I’ve ever seen, but we can go check them out if you want to.”

“Hell yeah that sounds awesome, let’s go!”

With no further warning, Ace grabbed Marco’s wrist and pulled him down the stairs. The touch of his hand was warm, and Marco could feel warmth rising in him to meet Ace’s, and it took all of his concentration to stop his wrist from sprouting flaming blue feathers while simultaneously coordinating his feet to make him not fall down the stairs.

Thankfully, Ace didn’t notice him stumble, he had his eyes set only on the deep sea creatures ahead of them.

The basement was only one room with a large tank making up the wall on all sides, illuminated by a dim glow, just enough to see inside.

It took Ace about a minute of looking at something that vaguely looked like a fish before he noticed he was still holding onto Marco’s wrist. But once he did, he let go like his hand got burned, apologizing immediately.

Even though it was really too dark to see much of his face, Ace’ cheeks were actually _glowing_ , emitting their own soft orange light, perfectly contrasting the dim blue glow from the aquarium tanks.

What an incredibly beautiful sight. Overcome with fascination, Marco reached out to gently brush his fingertips against Ace’s cheek. Small flames sparked from the contact immediately, blue and orange, sending a pleasant tingle from Marco’s hand to his stomach.

“There’s no need to apologize. I wouldn’t mind holding your hand properly.”

The glow of Ace’s cheeks only got brighter, but just as Marco was wondering if his face would actually burst into flames, Ace took a step back, ending the contact between them. He turned without answering, focusing his attention back on the fish tanks.

Ah, that had probably been a little too much. Honestly, Marco had acted without thinking. What had he been expecting from this? He wasn’t sure, but the disappointment coiling in his stomach told him it at least hadn’t been what he’d gotten.

Taking a deep breath, Marco reminded himself that no matter what everyone else seemed to think, this wasn’t a date. No handholding required to have a good time. He caught back up to Ace, intent on focusing his attention back on the translucent isopod slowly crawling across the ground of the aquarium.

But, after a minute of them simply standing in the same place, watching the small creature, Marco felt a warm hand brushing against his palm. A glance to the side told him that Ace was still resolutely staring at the isopod, but that was fine.

When Marco moved to take Ace’ hand into his own properly, Ace didn’t shy away from the contact, he just nestled his hand into Marco’s like it belonged there.

If Marco listened to the warm feeling spreading throughout his whole body, it definitely did.

* * *

Perhaps they spent a little more time than was strictly necessary looking at the deep sea creatures, but Marco didn’t mind, and Ace didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave either.

But eventually, Ace’s stomach rumbled, and they knew it was time to leave. A hungry Ace would never be a happy Ace. “A friend of mine owns a seafood restaurant not far from here,” Marco suggested, “we could go there. He makes great takoyaki.”

“Sounds good to me.” Ace was a little hesitant, but he let go of Marco’s hand, and they made their way back to the city streets.

The walk to the restaurant took only two minutes, and soon the two of them were in a small private room at the back, sitting at a small traditional table, on cushions on the floor and not on chairs. Karma was also clearly thinking they were on a date, but Marco didn’t correct him, this way neither of them would have to worry about people staring at Ace eating, or overhearing their conversation. Only employees would enter to bring new food, and all of Karma’s employees were mutants allied with Whitebeard, so they could talk freely without watching what they were saying.

Not that there was much talking at first. They ate in relative silence, Marco slowly working through a regular amount of food, while Ace devoured insane amounts faster than Marco could see.

But eventually, both of them were sated. When Karma came back in, Ace praised his cooking to the heavens, and the cook provided them with sundaes on the house in return for being such good customers, strawberry for Ace and pineapple for Marco. “I’ll leave you two alone, then,” he told Marco with a wink.

Ace’ eyes were sparkling at the sight of the sweet treat, so hopefully he didn’t pay any attention to that.

Marco couldn’t be sure, because even though Ace was clearly savouring this much more than the takoyaki earlier, he still didn’t say anything at first, looking lost in thought instead.

“Thank you for taking me out today,” Ace eventually spoke up, “I know you’re trying to cheer me up. I appreciate it.”

“Well, did it work?”

Ace shrugged. “I had fun?”

“But?” Because this very much sounded like there was a ‘but’ about to follow.

“Dunno. It’s not like being at the estate was bad either. I’ll just feel bad if it ends up not working, ya know?”

“You had fun, right? So it worked. I didn’t expect this to erase the problems you have with controlling your mutation. That’s not the kind of problem you can easily fix with some good times. But we can talk about it, if you want to. Even just telling someone else can help you get your thoughts in order. I’m no therapist or anything, but I can still try to help you. Or we can just leave it, and have today as a fun day with no bad thoughts. We can talk later, or you can talk to Deuce or whoever you want, or you can try to figure it out on your own.”

Ace sighed, looking defeated. “It’s not that I don’t wanna talk about it. If I knew what the fucking problem was, I could do something about it. Maybe even talk about it or whatever. But everything’s fine. Well, one thing is bothering me, and I don’t wanna tell anyone about it, but also that thing has always been bothering me, so I don’t think that’s it.”

Something that had always been bothering Ace? Marco couldn’t deny that he was curious to hear about it, but he knew not to pry. No, he had to think of a way to help them figure out what was wrong. “Well, the problem is your powers don’t work the way you want, so… What do you think about your powers? Do you like them? What do you think they can be used for?” Maybe whatever Ace would answer would give them a hint.

But Ace just looked confused. Almost shocked, just from hearing the questions. “What? Of course I don’t like the shitty fire. I fucking hate it. Like yeah, if it would work properly I could use it to fight and protect Luffy, but also if I was around Luffy all the time, more people would try to hurt him, so it’s really useless.”

…Okay, that was easier than anticipated. At least one glaring problem already identified. “You do realize that being at odds with your own powers isn’t exactly… helpful in controlling them, right?”

Ace glowered at him from across the table. “What, you want me to be happy I’m essentially a loose weapon and everyone wants to either kill or use me?”

“No, you don’t have to like how other people think about you because of your powers. You’re absolutely correct that a lot of people will see you like that, and you have every right to be angry about it. But that’s not your fault. It’s the fault of those other people. Your fire is a part of you, Ace. If you spend too long hating it, you might start liking yourself less for something you can’t control.”

“Who ever said anything about liking myself?” Ace grumbled.

For a moment, Marco wondered if Karma had spiked Ace’s sundae, with how easily he admitted all of this. “You don’t like yourself?” Marco’s voice was gentle. Even though the revelation was a shock for Marco, it was better if Ace didn’t realize that.

Still, he tensed up, pressing his lips together and turning his head away from Marco. Like he’d said too much without meaning to.

“Ace…”

“Ugh, no need to be so fucking concerned, alright? I’m fine. I don’t go around thinking I’m the worst person on earth, there’s plenty other assholes way closer to that title. I just don’t think there’s all that much to like about me.”

Ace sounded almost mad that… Marco cared about him? Or maybe he thought he was being pitied? Or did Marco sound condescending to him? It was hard to tell, and Marco didn’t want him to get the wrong idea and close himself off.

“I think there’s quite a few things to like about you. You’re a really great big brother, for example.” Marco had thought that was the safest choice, probably what Ace was most confident in, since the two brothers were so close, but even at that, Ace just deflated and slowly shook his head.

“No, I’m not.”

“Of course you are. Why wouldn’t you be? Luffy loves you. You’ve kept him safe for years and raised him practically on your own even when you yourself were still a child. Despite growing up in a less than ideal neighbourhood and marines chasing him for most of his life, including his own family, he’s probably the happiest and most well-adjusted mutant teenager I’ve ever picked up off the street, and I picked up a lot of them. If you were anything short of amazing, that would be impossible.”

Seriously. Just from the stories Luffy had told on the first car ride to the estate, Marco could tell Ace had done a better job of raising him than even most human parents who were trying to support their mutant kids.

But Ace stubbornly kept shaking his head. “That’s just what it looks like. I told myself the same thing, but it’s just not true.” Ace’s anger was quickly dissipating, being replaced by a deep resignation. “The truth is Luffy is just like that. Always has been, always will be. I made myself think he’s weak, and a crybaby who doesn’t understand the world, to convince myself he needs me. But he’s just fine without me. If I really was such a good big brother, shouldn’t I be happy about it?” Ace’ voice was getting louder again. “He’s safe! He’s happy! But I can’t help but hope something would happen to him so he comes running back to me. I mean, I don’t want him to be hurt, I just… I don’t know.” That last admission could only be described as meek. Maybe lost.

Marco was starting to feel wildly out of his element. He didn’t agree with what Ace said, but outright telling him he was wrong or even getting angry was unlikely to help him. Ace sounded so convinced, would he accept it even if Marco explained his viewpoint to him? Probably not.

“Well, that’s… complicated, I think,” Marco said, not wanting to stay quiet for too long. Shit. This was the reason Pops usually did the emotional talks with everyone. He was way better at this. But Pops wasn’t here, and Ace didn’t trust him for some reason, but now he was trusting Marco with all of this, there was no way Marco could try to pawn him off to someone else. “Can I… go off on a tangent for a little bit? It’s gonna be a little gruesome but I promise I’m going somewhere with it.”

Once again, Ace just shrugged. “Sure, I guess.” At least it looked like Marco had his attention, he was clearly willing to listen to what Marco would say.

“You know we try to help mutant children if the marines are chasing them, right?” Ace nodded, though he clearly had no idea what that had to do with anything. “Well, as much as we try, sometimes we fail. Sometimes the marines find them before we do, and they cross whatever threshold the commanding officer deems to be ‘resisting arrest’ on that particular day, and they get shot.”

Damn, Marco hated just thinking about this, he could practically feel the hopelessness and anger he always felt when realizing he was too late. But he had to tell Ace, and he knew any example that Marco didn’t care about much just wouldn’t work. So it had to be this.

“The marines like to just let them lay out on the street for a while, to show everyone what happens when you go against them. It’s disgusting. But all we can do at that point is take the body away from them, and try to find out their names so we can give them a proper burial at least. It’s the worst thing ever, to hold such a small, lifeless body. It breaks my heart every time.”

Now, Ace definitely looked like he was understanding what Marco was talking about. He could only hope it was only because Ace had feared Luffy dying and imagined this scenario quite a bit over the years, rather than actually having experienced it himself. But they still weren’t at the point Marco was trying to make, and Ace was still quietly listening.

“But I don’t just get sad when that happens. I get angry, too. These innocent kids don’t just die, they get _murdered_. People get _paid_ for murdering them. Other people call these murderers _heroes_. Every time I have to claw a dead mutant body from a marine officer, I imagine doing the same to them. Breaking into their home, chasing their kids or grandkids out into the street and murdering them in broad daylight. Maybe do it to a snotty noble kid, and then drop the dead body at marine headquarters. It’s _satisfying_ , to imagine the shock and fear on their faces.”

At least, Ace was properly shocked. Part of Marco was starting to doubt this was a great example. There was a reason he’d never told anyone but Pops about these thoughts. But, well, it was too late to back down now. He had something to say with this.

“The point is, I don’t do that. Ever. Never have, never will. It would be wrong. It wouldn’t lead to anything but more dead children on both sides. Even if it would actually get the marines to stop murdering mutant children, I’d still hate myself the moment I laid hand on any child. But I still have these thoughts, every time, because I want to be able to do something, _anything_ to make the dead child I’m holding the last one. But I can’t, and my brain says violent revenge is the next best thing, even if I know it’s not.”

Marco took a deep breath. “So, Ace, now that you know what kind of horrible thoughts I sometimes have, do you think that makes me a bad person?”

For a few, excruciating seconds, Ace said nothing in response, only thinking over the question with a serious look on his face. Meanwhile, Marco was questioning his own sanity and intelligence. Why did he go and ask someone he liked to judge his character based on some of the worst thoughts he ever had? Wasn’t he supposed to be the smart one?

“No,” Ace finally settled on. “The marines are the bad people. You didn’t do anything. Everyone gets angry when they see shit like that happening.”

“I agree, and I’m very glad you think so too.” Honestly, he had no idea what he would’ve done if Ace had come to a different conclusion. Good thing he didn’t have to ever figure that out. “And even though your thoughts are way less bad than mine, the same principle applies. You didn’t do anything to harm Luffy. You didn’t try to force him to stay when he wanted to leave. You didn’t try to separate him from his friends, so he’d have to go back to relying on you. You had some bad thoughts, but you know what the right thing to do was, and acted on that. That’s what makes you such a good big brother.”

Ace made a series of facial expressions that clearly indicated he wanted to disagree, but as he was wracking his brain for a reason to, he couldn’t find one, especially since he himself had just come to the same conclusion. Which he then pouted about. _Cute_.

Sadly, he didn’t pout for long, going back to actually being sad way too quickly as he found an answer. “Even then, it doesn’t change the fact that Luffy doesn’t need me anymore. Luffy’s strong. But…”

Ace trailed off, picking up his spoon and going back to eating his forgotten and melting sundae. Marco did the same, but kept his eyes on Ace. Expectant. Waiting. Part of him wanted to prompt Ace to go on, but clearly this wasn’t something he could easily talk about. Pressuring might just make him close up.

When there was no more sundae left to serve as an excuse, Ace slowly put down his spoon. And then he looked up at Marco, more vulnerability in his eyes than Marco had ever seen. It made him want to go over to Ace and pull him into a hug, but he restrained himself.

“What if _I’m_ not strong?” Ace finally asked. “What if _I_ need Luffy? What if I need him to rely on me? How can I deal with all the bad things that happen all the time if it’s not necessary to protect Luffy? Why would it matter if I control my fire or not if Luffy is safe either way? Even if I do control it, what do I even do when I manage? Why would I go find a job if I don’t need it to feed Luffy? Why would I fight the marines, if it’s not for Luffy? Why would I hide, if I don’t need to do it to keep Luffy safe?”

He sounded so _lost_ , and yet he was looking at Marco like he had an answer to all these questions Ace couldn’t answer on his own. Marco didn’t have any, couldn’t have any, but not answering was unacceptable. He couldn’t leave Ace on his own.

Not bothering to restrain himself anymore, Marco stood up, walked around the table, and dropped back down next to Ace, facing him. He still felt unsure if Ace would be comfortable with a hug, so instead Marco brushed his fingertips against Ace’s cheek again, mirroring what he’d done earlier today.

“You’re plenty strong,” he started, not leaving any room for discussion in his statement, “and you’re going to do all these things in order to live. Because even if Luffy doesn’t need you to survive anymore, he still wants you in his life. He worries about you and hopes you’re happy, and he’s not the only one either. And I can’t promise you that will always feel like a good enough reason, but it’s fine, because you’ll find more as you keep living.”

Tears were starting to roll down Ace’ cheeks, but he leaned into the touch of Marco’s hand ever so slightly, and Marco took that as his cue to keep going.

“I’m sorry I can’t give you all the answers you need, but I can help you search for them if you want. I’ve spent a lot of time with you since I brought you home with me, and I know you, Ace.” A bold claim, one Marco wasn’t even sure about, but he still felt he had to make it. “I know you’re not the kind of guy who will stop running just because you’ve lost your way for a while. You’ll keep going, and you’ll find your way again, or an entirely new way that’s even better. And maybe you’ll have a few more walls blocking your way than the average guy, but you can just burn them down and go wherever you want. You’re such a wonderful, admirable person, I know you’ll be just fine.”

Before Marco could find any more words for his frankly embarrassing yet entirely honest monologue, Ace lurched forward, throwing his arms around Marco. What had been quiet crying turned to full-on sobs, and Marco pulled Ace close, simply holding him.

Ace felt warm in his arms, and even though Marco still wasn’t sure if he found the right words, or if he’d managed to help Ace at all, or where they would go from here, he allowed himself to enjoy the contact.

It felt right, to hold Ace like this. Maybe eventually, there would be a happier occasion, but for now, he could only hope he could provide even a fraction of the comfort Ace clearly needed.

Marco’s heart bled with every sob from Ace, yet he felt privileged to be allowed to witness them, and glad that Ace wasn’t alone right now.

All of these conflicting feelings reached deeper than Marco could examine right now, way deeper than he thought they did, and he knew he couldn’t put off looking just how deep their roots went any longer.

He had to figure out what exactly he was feeling for Ace that made him willing to go so far out of his comfort zone for him. But he would do that tonight, when everyone else was sleeping.

Right now, he would just hold Ace. That was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... here we are. are all of ace's issues dealt with now? hell no, plenty got brushed over and he still hasn't even mentioned roger but now he can actually start dealing with some of his issues  
> (will marco tell karma why ace has puffy eyes when they leave? no. he will have to wonder about that forever)
> 
> please do let me know how you liked this chapter!!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace does his best to think and talk things through, he really, really does, but there's just too much.  
> And when he chooses to do research and read things like some kind of nerd, things don't exactly turn out better for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha so the last chapter was the longest already, but this one is still a good chunk longer than that,,, but it needed to be done, hope y'all enjoy
> 
> and for those of you reading as it updates: there is now art for the last chapter! check it out and give the lovely sinsajo all your support! https://twitter.com/LombaxFloof/status/1355041739627704322?s=19

The next day, Ace asked Marco to let him skip training again. Not only was he way too embarrassed about… everything that happened to actually focus on anything with Marco right there, he also just really needed some time to himself to think. So, after breakfast, he went back to his room, threw himself on his bed, and tried to figure out what to do now.

While talking to Marco hadn’t necessarily solved any of Ace’s problems, at least it felt like he had a better understanding of what the fuck was wrong with himself now. Maybe he could figure something out from there.

But he honestly didn’t think he could start liking the fire. Yeah, Marco had made a good point that it made more sense to be pissed at others for reacting to the fire badly than blame the fire or himself for that, the same way Ace got pissed at the marines for chasing Luffy, rather than blaming Luffy or his rubber powers. But Marco didn’t know who Ace inherited his fire from. If he knew, he’d be scared and disgusted, too.

Still, Ace didn’t think that had to stop him from being able to control his fire. He just needed to find a good enough reason to do it. After all, he’d always been able to do anything, as long as Luffy needed him to. Like learning how to be gentle and comforting when Luffy felt sad or lonely. That hadn’t come naturally to Ace at all, and he’d struggled with it quite a bit, but once Sabo had been taken away, there was nobody else left to do it, and leaving Luffy alone with his bad feelings just wasn’t an option.

The fire could probably work the same way, except, as Marco had made him admit and spell out for himself, Luffy didn’t actually need Ace anymore. He could survive and be happy even without Ace around.

It still hurt to even think that, especially if Ace admitted to himself that it wasn’t true the other way around. If he ever lost Luffy entirely, Ace wouldn’t be able to be happy. Even with texts and visits, he wasn’t doing so hot.

Pretty pathetic, in his own opinion, but Marco had called him strong anyway.

Why, Ace didn’t fully understand, but Marco was smart, and it seemed like he understood Ace better than he understood himself at times, so there had to be some truth to his words.

So, the solution to Ace’ problems probably was to follow Marco’s advice and keep going while trying to find a reason other than ‘protect Luffy’ to control his fire. The only problem with that was that he had no idea where to start.

The obvious answer would be to just find other people. Like Luffy had found his friends. Ace didn’t even need to look for them. Just accept Whitebeard’s invitation and use the huge family he’d built as his new reasons. Get strong to protect the kids, even the more reckless ones like Chimney. Be a good listener and friend for Deuce. Hone the skills he had to help out Thatch and Fossa. Try to grow more mature to make Whitebeard proud.

Do all of that and whatever else was necessary to get Marco to look and smile at him like he had back at the aquarium. Ace still had no idea what exactly happened in that deep sea creature basement and why, but his head would probably explode if he opened that can of worms along with all the ones he already had open, so he’d just let it be for now, its own special, magical moment that didn’t need an explanation.

It probably didn’t matter anyway, because Ace couldn’t just accept the invitation to stay. The longer he did stay, the more he wanted to, and that was dangerous and stupid. The temptation to just come clean and tell at least someone his biggest secret was growing by the day. Because the hope that they might just love and accept him anyway was steadily growing alongside it.

But he _couldn’t_. Deep down, he knew that was just wishful thinking. Just because he didn’t want them to hate him didn’t mean they wouldn’t. Besides, they were powerful. Ace already had everyone on the side of the law against him, he really couldn’t afford a criminal organization that ruled one of the Blues as his enemy as well. Especially with how much they knew about him. The risk was just too high, no matter how tempting the possible reward was. This was nothing like choosing to tell Luffy and Sabo, two lonely children with nowhere to go.

And that left him with absolutely no idea for a good way to control his fire.

Ace groaned. He wasn’t getting anywhere with this. He’d never been good at thinking stuff through and coming up with good solutions, that was Sabo’s job. Too bad Sabo wasn’t actually here to help him out.

Well, he figured, that didn’t mean nobody else who was smarter than him was around. Maybe it was about time to go find Deuce.

* * *

Ace figured Deuce would be at the hospital, meaning he’d have to avoid Marco if he didn’t want the conversation to get really awkward really fast, but he didn’t even make it outside of the main building without running into Marco, so… so much for that.

Just as Ace walked down the stairs to the entrance hall to get out, Marco strolled out of Whitebeard’s room. Just his luck. There was no time to hide either, Marco saw him immediately.

Shit. What now? Part of Ace wanted to run away, but that was never an option, so instead he just kept walking, meeting Marco at the bottom of the stairs. “Hi,” he started awkwardly, really not sure what he should say. Should he apologize for crying on Marco yesterday? And just for dumping all of his problems on him?

“You’ve got perfect timing, Ace,” Marco told him before he could do any of that. “I need to tell you something.”

Ace blinked. “What is it?” He honestly had no clue what Marco could be talking about.

“Well, I don’t know what your plans were regarding our training, but I can’t help you out for a few days starting tomorrow. I don’t know how long exactly…”

“Why not?” Ace’ stomach churned. Did Marco think it was too awkward too? Did he think Ace wouldn’t get anywhere anyway? Was he finally getting tired of Ace? Had he failed too often?

It was still as hard as ever to read any emotions from Marco’s expression, so Ace had no clue.

“Well, I’m sorry it’s at such an inopportune time, but I’ve got a mission that means I’ll be away from home for a while. The plan is three days, but I’m going to the noble district, the security there is nuts, so it’s not unlikely something will pop up to slow me down.”

A shiver ran down Ace’s spine. How the hell could Marco say that so casually? The noble district! The last place any mutant would ever want to go to! It was way too risky! Was Marco actually insane? “Why the hell would you go to the noble district?”

But despite Ace’s obviously astounded tone, Marco just shrugged. _Shrugged!_ As if it wasn’t a big deal at all. The reactions and thought processes of this man would probably never stop throwing Ace for a loop. “As much as nobles would love to believe they’re different from the rest of us, genetically speaking, they’re just not. They’re just people. And that means some of their kids are mutants, too, all the way up to the Celestial Dragons, whether they like it or not. And a contact of ours found a mutant kid that hasn’t been discovered yet, so I’m going to get them out.”

“Isn’t that dangerous as fuck?” Seriously. Ace had looked into it, getting into the noble district was already incredibly difficult, but getting out, especially with someone else in tow, was practically impossible. If it were easy, he’d have gotten Sabo out of there years ago.

“It’s very dangerous,” Marco agreed. “That’s why I’m going, and nobody else. My chances for survival are easily the best. I hate just leaving you hanging like this, and I still need to make sure everything at the hospital will run smoothly while I’m away, but it can’t be helped. Pops, Izou, Haruta and I all agree this is the best and safest option.”

“Ah, I was gonna go see Deuce anyway, we can go over there if you want.” There was really no point just standing around in front of the door like they were right now. “But how come your chances for survival are so much better than everyone else’s? Is it just the healing?”

“The healing is part of it, but not really the deciding factor,” Marco explained as he took Ace’s suggestion and started walking toward the hospital. “One of the big reasons is that I can fly. The noble district has a huge, guarded wall around it, and if you do get spotted, you’re never going to get over it. Especially if you have someone with you who isn’t an experienced fighter. But if you can just fly over it, outside of their weapons’ range…”

“That’s definitely one huge obstacle out of the way.” In this case, it was probably a huge negative that Marco wasn’t just a regular bird, he could fly over entirely undetected if he were, especially at night, but since he was made of flames, everyone would easily see and recognize him. “So what other reason is there?”

Marco grinned. “I’m popular.”

“Popular?” Ace repeated, dumbfounded. How, and also why the hell would Marco be popular with the nobles?

“Yep.”

“Don’t nobles hate mutants even more than regular people?”

“They do. But I’m an exception.”

“How come?” Ace frowned. They were getting close to the hospital now, but he wanted an explanation for this. After all, if your whole worldview was based around judging people by the way they were born, how did you just make one random exception?

“I helped them.” Marco paused right in front of the hospital entrance. “Maybe nobles are raised to be ungrateful bastards, but they’re still people. When something truly horrible happens, something that feels like the apocalypse, even they won’t forget the one who saved their lives and their families.”

While his voice remained casual, there was something in Marco’s eyes that told Ace he meant it when he said whatever happened had felt like the apocalypse. For a moment, Ace wondered if he’d done something wrong, asking about it. Maybe he shouldn’t have made Marco remember that event.

But then that moment was over, and a casual smile returned to Marco’s face as he turned away from Ace to enter the hospital. Ace was left wanting to know more, but maybe now wasn’t the right time to ask Marco about it.

* * *

Finding Deuce, as had been the plan since the beginning, wasn’t all that hard. One of the nurses – Ace was pretty sure her name was Liz, but he could be wrong – pointed him to where Deuce was, cleaning and disinfecting a room after a patient had been released in the morning.

Ace wasn’t exactly keen on helping out with that, but he’d feel bad if he just showed up and let Deuce work on his own, so he offered his help and did whatever Deuce instructed him to do. At the very least, it was something to occupy himself with until he figured out what exactly he wanted to ask Deuce.

Once they were done, Deuce found himself some paperwork, an empty desk and two chairs in an unoccupied room, but instead of actually doing anything with the papers, he looked expectantly at Ace. “So, you wanna talk about it?”

Huh? “About what?” Ace was here to talk, sure, but what exactly was Deuce expecting? How the hell did he know anything?

“I don’t know, you look like you’ve been wanting to say something the entire time. Plus, Doctor Marco said earlier the two of you aren’t training because you need to think, so I figured you’re here to talk about how that thinking is going, which I assume is not all that well.”

“Ugh, why are you so smart, Deuce?”

“I’m really not.”

“You really are. No point arguing it. Basically, we figured out the training isn’t going well because I hate the stupid fire and also I don’t have a good enough reason to do it anyway.”

“You hate your fire powers?”

Deuce looked genuinely surprised by this, and once again Ace wondered why. He was pretty sure it should be obvious even ignoring that they didn’t know his connection to Roger. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know, I’ve spent the past month or so being silently jealous of your powers, you tell me what’s so bad about them.” Deuce was absolutely serious when he said this, throwing Ace off a little.

“Fire’s dangerous? It hurts just to touch it? Like not me but everyone else. It can be useful as a weapon, sure, but it’s one thing to have a weapon and another if you _are_ a weapon. I don’t get why you would be jealous of that. All the important powerful people either want me dead or doing their dirty work, that’s _not_ fun.”

To be fair to Deuce, he did contemplate Ace’s answer, twirling his pen in his fingers. “I guess that does suck. I wouldn’t be able to handle that. But you just seem like the kind of guy who could do it, you know?” Deuce bit his lip. “Maybe saying I’m jealous of your powers was wrong. It’s more like… Fire is really good for fighting, and you’re really good at fighting. My power is good for doctors, but I couldn’t even pass a nursing exam.”

Ace frowned. That did make sense, sort of, but… “You’ve never seen me fight.”

“I guess not really, but remember when we had intruders and we didn’t know yet it was just Luffy’s friends? You were so cool and brave, and everyone immediately relied on you. Even Doctor Marco trusted you and put you in charge. Meanwhile I knew way better what we were supposed to do in an emergency, but I was just scared, and everyone could see it. Once you get the hang of your powers, you’ll immediately be one of our most valuable fighters, and you’ll never have to worry about being useless.”

Somehow, Ace was starting to get the feeling Deuce’ view of him was a little skewed. Like just a little too positive. The total opposite of Deuce’ view of himself, which was a little too negative, at least compared to what Ace saw of him. So he worried about being useless a lot?

Ace didn’t think he’d ever worried about being useless. At least not in the sense that he felt that he couldn’t do things, only in the sense that there was nothing worth doing. But he imagined it was a pretty bad feeling.

“You’re not useless because you failed an exam once. Even if you’re actually not good at medical stuff, there’s other things you’re good at. Like you’re way smarter than me.”

“I- No, I’m not…” Deuce looked like he had expected a very different answer and was now not sure how to continue. “That’s not the point, Ace. I was going somewhere with this.”

Ace crossed his arms, looking at Deuce defiantly. “Well, it was _my_ point. But fine, I’ll wait until you’re done to make it.”

Even though Ace was just being honest and nice, apparently Deuce was starting to get mad at how obstinate he was about it, glaring back at Ace. “Fine, do whatever you want. But first, you listen to me. What was I gonna say again? Right, two more things. First, you should maybe go talk to Thatch about this.”

“Thatch?” Ace tilted his head to the side, confused. “What does Thatch have to do with anything?” If Deuce was suggesting someone with a similar experience, wouldn’t Fossa make more sense? Though, now that he thought about it, Ace had no idea what kind of mutation Thatch possessed. He’d never mentioned anything, or shown any sign of powers. For all Ace knew, Thatch could be entirely human.

But Deuce just nodded. “Well, his powers are completely different from yours, but he never uses them unless he has to fight. And he doesn’t fight all that often, even though he’s one of our strongest. I never really got it, and we’re not all that close so I didn’t feel comfortable asking why, but he can probably help you better than I can.”

Maybe. Maybe not. But now Ace was definitely curious, so he’d ask for sure. It could never hurt to try. Plus, with Marco gone starting tomorrow, Ace had a bunch of free time anyway. “I’ll talk to him. Can I get to my point now?”

“No. I said I have two things. The other thing is about your fire. I obviously have no idea what it’s like when you can turn yourself into fire, but I read a bunch and I can tell you this: Fire is not as one-dimensional as you think. In literature, it can be used as a symbol of destruction, sure. It often represents anger, too. But it’s also seen as one of humanity’s biggest achievements to be able to tame fire and use it for our own gain. In fact, we tamed it so much it became synonymous with the gentle warmth of a home, as everyone sits around the hearth or in front of the fireplace. And aside from being warm, it’s also bright, so it’s often used as a light of hope that shines through the darkness of the night. It keeps away fear, and it shows you the way when you’re lost.”

A blush spread across Deuce’ cheeks once he was done speaking. “Ah, sorry, I ended up rambling way too much. I talk like I know everything just because I read a book about common symbolism once…”

“No, don’t apologize, you’re just proving my point.” Ace grinned at Deuce, who looked confused again.

“We were still at my point, though? Not yours?”

Ace snorted. “You’re good with words. That’s my whole point. You read so much, and you always look super happy when you do. It’s super easy to tell by your face if you’re reading boring medical reports or a novel you like. And you’re great at making up stories, too! All the kids love the stuff you tell them, they keep talking about it.”

Now Deuce looked like he was about to faint from embarrassment. “Those stories are just random stuff that comes to mind, and I often use ideas I read about before! Kids are just easy to impress! None of the stuff I write is any good…”

“I bet it’s great!” Ace didn’t let up, moving his face closer to Deuce’s. “You should let me read some of it!”

Deuce fell backwards off his chair. “No way! You’ll just laugh at me! And you don’t even like to read… There’s way better stuff, if you want something, I can give you book recommendations, I know great authors in a lot of different genres…”

“Nah, I don’t care about those. I wanna read something from you.” Ace didn’t really get what the problem was. Deuce had said he’d written stuff already, so it wasn’t like he didn’t have anything to show Ace. And Ace wasn’t some critic or even anyone who knew anything about literature, he’d definitely enjoy whatever it was. He wouldn’t even notice spelling mistakes, probably. And even if he did, he wouldn’t judge. Spelling shit was hard.

“F-fine.” Deuce picked himself up from the floor again, still bright red in the face. “But then you actually gotta seriously think about what I said about fire in return. Don’t think I didn’t notice you deflecting.”

It hadn’t even been his intention to deflect, but he guessed that had worked out pretty well for him. “Alright, I’ll think.” Ace leaned backwards in his chair.

As he tried to wrap his mind around Deuce’ perspective on fire, it was quiet beside him, until Deuce realized Ace meant he was doing the thinking right now. Then he actually started focussing his attention on the paperwork he’d grabbed earlier.

“You know,” Ace started the conversation back up a few minutes later, startling poor Deuce quite a bit, “I think I get what you mean that fire can be warm and gentle and a guiding light or whatever. I’ve always thought of my own fire as a curse, but Marco’s fire isn’t like that. It’s pretty, and comforting, and when he touches me and our fires connect, even my own fire feels less… angry? Evil? I don’t know… But it’s definitely like, if you look up at the night sky and you see Marco flying there, all bright and beautiful, you’ll feel better. So there is that kind of fire.”

Deuce smirked at him, and for the first time, there was something in his expression that Ace couldn’t quite read. “You got it bad, huh?”

“What’s bad that I got?”

“Your crush on Marco.”

…Crush? He didn’t have a crush on Marco. That was ridiculous.

Yes, Marco was his type, if he thought about it, he liked older men who knew what they were doing and would take care of him, but that was for one-night-stands. Not serious feelings stuff. Ace didn’t do feelings and crushes. Certainly not related to a weirdo like Marco.

But… Back at the aquarium, Ace’ heart had definitely gone wild when Marco had touched his cheek so gently. And if he really thought about it, he’d definitely been happy about the suggestion that they could hold hands. Ace wasn’t sure what he felt once he actually offered his hand to Marco – or why he did that in the first place – but it hadn’t been bad. At all.

“No,” he croaked out, “I’m not gonna think about that right now.” That was his decision, and he’d stick to it. “I’m not smart like you Deuce, my head will literally explode if I try to think about two complicated things at once.” He could examine his feelings for Marco later. Once he had his fire under control. Maybe never, if he left after that. That last one sounded like a great plan, though it also felt a whole lot like running away. He would examine that later, too.

Deuce sighed next to him. “Alright, that’s fair. Just don’t put it off too long.”

* * *

They ate lunch together, switching to more inconsequential topics while eating. Well, mostly it was just Deuce talking, but Ace made sure to let him know he was listening even when he couldn’t form words with all the food in his mouth. Afterwards, Deuce went back to the hospital, while Ace stayed behind, helping with sorting all the dishes into the dishwashers.

Once again, he was left wondering how to start the conversation he wanted to have, and Thatch wasn’t as helpful as Deuce by starting it himself. He was content just working alongside Ace, humming along to a song on the radio Ace only vaguely recognized.

Well, when in doubt, charge bluntly forward. That usually didn’t go wrong for Ace. “Hey Thatch,” he started, “what’s your mutation? Deuce said you don’t like it.”

Thatch froze. For a second, Ace wondered if he’d drop the glasses he was holding, but then that moment was over and Thatch carefully put the glasses down, turning to look at Ace. His usual carefree look was nowhere to be found, and Ace was starting to be pretty sure he’d made a mistake somehow.

“It’s… more complicated than that.” Thatch sighed. He started sorting dishes again, and Ace took that to mean he wouldn’t get an answer.

The atmosphere in the kitchen remained awkward for a few minutes, but quickly returned to normal. Thatch was whistling again by the time everything was put away and being cleaned by the dishwashers.

He approached Ace with a big grin on his face, even slinging an arm over his shoulder once he reached him. “So, you wanna hear stories of what this man among men is capable of, huh? We’ve got like, an hour before we gotta get started on dinner prep, so I shall impart my wisdom on you.”

Thatch looked very happy and overly pleased with himself, and it was such a stark contrast to his earlier reaction that Ace even forgot to point out he’d only asked a simple question, not to hear Thatch’s life story or anything. Whatever. As Thatch hopped to sit on the counter, Ace grabbed a chair, leaning his chest against the backrest of it.

“Now, I hope you’re not offended I never told you anything before, but that’s kind of the standard. Most of the newbies and kids don’t know about my abilities. They tend to get scared.”

Ace frowned, definitely taking it personally. “I’m not scared of anyone or anything.” Whatever Thatch’s ability was, he was sure he could find a way to kick his ass if ever necessary.

Thatch only cocked an eyebrow in response. Then he held up his right hand, obviously for a demonstration of his powers.

For one second, nothing happened. But then, a weird black fog engulfed Thatch’s hand, forming a small sphere of what could only be described as pure darkness in his palm. It honestly didn’t look like anything that should be able to exist in reality, which was only amplified by the singular spoon that had still been lying around, as it was sucked toward the black ball of nothing and crushed and crumpled when it came in contact with it.

Ace could feel the pull of it, too, though it wasn’t strong enough to move him. At least not his body. His fire was an entirely different story. It felt like the fire was being pulled out of him, and Ace had to fight his instinct to let it out to try and burn Thatch to a crisp before he could actually achieve something like that.

It was honestly a terrifying feeling, and Ace knew Thatch had kept it small and safe on purpose.

As Thatch let the darkness disappear, Ace took a shuddering breath, trying not to show any of his feelings on his face. “Oh,” he breathed out, “you’re the Darkness.”

Over the time he’d been with the Whitebeards, Ace had been able to match a face with all of the big names of Whitebeard’s commanders that the newspapers talked about, except the one they called the Darkness. He’d wondered about that, even half-heartedly tried to find out who it was, but he hadn’t suspected Thatch for a second. He was so kind, laid-back, happy, never really serious, and so obviously not one of the main guys involved in fighting. Ace wasn’t sure what he’d expected the Darkness to be like, but it was probably some closed-off guy wearing all black.

Not a weird and slightly obnoxious guy that was always surrounded by people and loved to cook for hundreds of people every day.

Thatch did a little twirl with his hand as he did an approximation of a fancy bow from where he sat. “At your service.” It was so silly; Ace couldn’t help but snort.

“You never thought about embracing the aesthetic more? You don’t look like a darkness guy.”

“The pompadour is enough to convey my coolness.” Even though Thatch sounded sure, Ace didn’t really buy it. The cook gave a defeated sigh. “I tried, okay? I did promise you my wisdom, so here it is: When you’re a teenager and you try to look cool by wearing all black, it will be a cool experience, but everyone will make fun of you for it, and they’ll never stop even if you ditched the aesthetic years ago.”

With the miserable expression on Thatch’s face, Ace was sure there was photographic evidence of his old outfits, and it was sure to be hilarious. Maybe he should ask Marco about it. Or Haruta. He looked a little young to have been there for that, but he also seemed to be in charge of archiving and keeping track of everything.

“Anyway,” Thatch continued, interrupting Ace’s thoughts, “I decided I’m happier making use of all colours in my outfits. Pretty much around the same time I realized that no matter how happy I am to help Pops with my powers, I’d be much happier helping everyone by feeding them food I cooked.”

“But you’re still fighting sometimes, right?”

“Of course. I’ll never say no if Pops asks me to fight. I owe him everything. He saved my life, showed me what freedom is, accepted me despite everything, and gave me a home and a family on top of that. Occasionally fighting to protect everyone doesn’t feel like it’s even close to enough to repay him, but he never asks for more.”

Somewhere, deep down, Ace had long since been aware that this was how most, if not all of the Whitebeards felt about the man they called Pops, but it was the first time someone spelt it out so clearly, and with such honesty in their voice.

And Ace… got it, to a point. It was Marco who’d saved him initially, but Whitebeard had invited him to stay, had decided that Ace’s powers weren’t a problem, hadn’t even asked the questions Ace was afraid of, had fed and clothed him and never asked for anything substantial in return.

It was by Ace’ choice that a wall remained between them. He wouldn’t give the old man the chance to accept him. Couldn’t risk it.

“Listen, Ace,” Thatch pulled him out of his thoughts once more, “I don’t know your life story. Unless you choose to tell me, I can never properly understand how you feel about yourself or your mutation, and even if you do, I might not get it 100%. Maybe nobody will. But that’s fine. My mutation can hurt humans, but it’s worse for other mutants, so I’ve been hated by everyone just for having them. But when it seemed like the world was truly going to end and everyone I ever knew abandoned me to let me die, Pops found me. It still took me a long time from there to become the man I am today, that’s just how it is. You’re already doing pretty well for yourself, so I know you’ll be just fine, too.”

Thatch jumped back down from the counter to ruffle Ace’ hair. He’d really meant it when he said he wanted to impart some wisdom, huh. Just giving Ace more to think about.

His brain was definitely going to explode.

* * *

He spent dinner still mulling everything over, and kept doing the same as he went to bed, but he didn’t really reach a breakthrough until he finally fell asleep.

The next morning, he went to see Marco off before breakfast. He wasn’t the only one with the idea, but even as the old-timers joked around, there was a definite tension in the air. Everyone knew this was a dangerous mission. Haruta even gave Marco some kind of device that he should only use in case of a critical emergency. Ace didn’t know what it did, but Marco pocketed it without asking for an explanation, so he probably did.

Still, when Marco turned to Ace, there was the same relaxed smile on his face that he always wore. “Don’t burn yourself up while I’m not here, okay? Just relax a little, no need to rush if you don’t know what to do. Have some fun, annoy Thatch for me, and enjoy your days off training.”

“Hey, don’t think I didn’t notice you slipping that in,” Thatch complained, but Ace paid him no mind.

“Worry about yourself, I’ll be just fine. You’re the one who could get killed or caught. So make sure to get your stupid bird ass back here.”

“With such kind words, what choice do I have?”

Ace rolled his eyes. Part of him wanted to hug Marco, or grab his hand, it just felt… wrong, to stand apart like this and just let him go. But everyone was watching, and Ace couldn’t decide on a course of action, so he ended up doing nothing as he watched Marco leave.

Really, what he wanted to do was go with him, but he knew full well he’d only be in the way, as much as he didn’t want that to be true. If only he was more reliable…

The group dispersed, and Ace went back to his room, trying to take Marco’s advice and relax, but it wasn’t working. At all. Now he wasn’t just worrying about his problems with his fire, he kept wondering if Marco was fine, which didn’t help his attempts at not thinking about his supposed crush on him. Damn Deuce for putting a word to it.

When he couldn’t take it anymore, Ace fled his room. He needed something to do. But what? Could he focus on anything right now? Maybe… maybe he could try to find out what Marco had meant yesterday when he’d talked about what had made him popular with the nobles. Maybe if he figured it out, it would calm him down a little, and he wouldn’t think about Marco getting shot or collared as much. Besides, even Thatch had mentioned an event that was ‘like the world was going to end’. Was it the same as Marco’s apocalypse where he somehow helped the nobles? He didn’t know how old the two of them were exactly. His gut told him there was only one thing they could mean, but he ignored it. After all, he knew nothing about the lives of these old men, or the history of the city.

How to go about it, though? He could ask someone, of course, another old-timer or even Whitebeard himself, but with the reaction from even Marco, who was always chill, he didn’t know if anyone would like to talk to him about it.

Plus, he didn’t want another situation like Deuce, with people questioning what he felt towards Marco, if he asked about his past. No thank you. He still hadn’t met a member of the Whitebeard family who didn’t love to tease and gossip.

He had another idea, though, so he let his feet take him to Haruta’s office. It was a place he didn’t usually go to, not wanting to disrupt his work, and certainly not wanting to damage any of the computers. But Haruta was a chill guy, and had offered Ace that he could come drop by whenever. Probably because he was bored. Ace had no idea why such a young, active guy was the one responsible for communication and archiving and all that boring computer work, but from what he understood, it had something to do with his mutation.

The office was located at the highest floor of the main building, and it was in a state of disarray, exactly as the other two times Ace had been there before, stacks of papers and a few cups and plates littering the desks and even the floor.

Haruta was blankly staring at the screen of his monitor, only detaching his gaze every now and then to scribble something on one of like five pieces of paper that were strewn around his desk. Clearly, he hadn’t noticed Ace yet.

“Yo,” Ace greeted. It took a few seconds for Haruta to blink, then slowly tear his gaze away from the monitor to look at Ace.

“Yo.” Haruta grinned at him. “What a rare visitor. Can I help you? Or do you just wanna enjoy my company? I’m a little busy today but I can always make time.”

With how much Haruta was working, that probably meant he had quite a bit to do. “I just wanted to ask if we had an archive for like, old newspapers and stuff. I wanna look at some of them.”

Haruta’s eyes started sparkling, and a shiver ran down Ace’s spine. That was not the reaction he’d been expecting. Haruta was up in his face before he could figure out what was happening. “You wanna go in the archive and clean up all the dust from the old newspapers? What a great way to spend all the free time you got.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“That’s what I heard.” Haruta wore a huge grin as he moved away from Ace and started rummaging through some drawers, eventually pulling out a key that he then gave to Ace. “There you go. It’s in the basement under the school, the door on the left. Have fun~”

Well, he guessed he got what he wanted, even if it didn’t look like he was getting out of cleaning. At least he’d have something to do…? Depending on how dusty it was, maybe there was no way to read the newspapers without cleaning them a little anyway.

“Oh, wait,” Haruta added as soon as Ace turned around to leave, now grabbing a stack of papers and shoving them into Ace’s arms as well. “Can you bring this to Pops? You’re free, right? Do me the favour.”

“Alright, sure. It’s not like it’s a big detour.”

“You’re the best!” With that, Haruta went back to his computer, which Ace took as his cue to leave him alone.

* * *

It still wasn’t as easy as it maybe should be for Ace to knock on Whitebeard’s door, his nerves still acting up. But it was a lot easier than it had been the first time Marco had brought him here, he didn’t feel like he was about to die anymore. Now it only took a steadying breath and a few seconds for him to work up the courage to knock and go inside entirely on his own.

Whitebeard’s gaze was on him the moment he entered, and the old man greeted him with a gentle smile. “It’s good to see you, Ace. Is there something that brings you to me?”

“Yeah, Haruta asked me to bring you some paperwork. No idea what it’s about, I was just getting the key for the newspaper archive.”

“Oh?” Whitebeard took the papers from Ace, glancing over them briefly before he turned his attention back to Ace. “Do you enjoy that sort of thing? Looking at old newspapers?”

Ace thought about it for a moment, he honestly wasn’t sure if he’d ever done something like that before. Research or whatever. He’d looked stuff up in the library before, but not all that often. “Not really? I just wanna know something. I wouldn’t like reading all day… Plus Haruta said I should clean it too, which I don’t like.”

“Gurararara, Haruta likes pushing tasks onto others, especially ones that are technically for him to do that he neglects. I wonder how long it’s been since anyone cleaned that… If it’s too much, feel free to ask someone for help or leave it half-finished.”

“I never do anything half-assed,” Ace announced, even though he knew he was digging his own grave here. Who knew how dusty or big that archive was. At least Whitebeard seemed to gain some form of amusement from his determination. “Can I ask something though?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you always ask if I like doing stuff? Especially chore stuff. I mean, it’s all work, right? Some of it is worse than other stuff, sure, but it’s all work, it all needs to be done, right? So it doesn’t matter.”

Whitebeard regarded him with a contemplative look. “You’re not wrong. Work is work, and even if you enjoy what you’re doing, everything will feel like work on an off day. I simply thought it would be nice if you found something you’re passionate about.”

Somehow, Ace didn’t feel like that was the whole story, but Whitebeard wasn’t exactly easy to read. “You mean like Thatch?” He was definitely passionate about cooking, and he’d said something like that yesterday, how it made him much happier than fighting.

“Yes, Thatch is a very good example. I’m always happy to eat the meals he made. As a father, nothing could make me prouder than seeing how far he’s come since I met him.” This time, Ace was absolutely sure there was no hidden meaning, Whitebeard meant exactly what he said. There was just something in his voice, and the face he made. It felt like something… special. Precious. Unattainable. But maybe it was just what any good parent was like. Ace wouldn’t know.

He’d never know, because he wouldn’t let anyone try.

“But not everyone is like that. Haruta just seems bored all the time. And Deuce doesn’t really seem happy helping out at the hospital either…”

“You’re very observant. I’m glad to see you’re looking out for everyone.” Ace could feel his cheeks heat up with Whitebeard’s words. What the fuck! He was just paying a little attention, no need to point that out! “Still, I think those two are very different.”

Ace didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”

“Haruta doesn’t enjoy being inside all day, and he generally dislikes doing the same thing every day. If you take his work away from him, he’ll be very happy for an afternoon. But he’s actually very passionate about knowing and organizing everything, so he’ll be clawing back whatever work you took from him the next day. Deuce, on the other hand, neither likes nor dislikes anything in particular about medical work. He feels like it’s what he should be doing, given his mutation, but is unhappy since he believes he’ll never be good at it. That makes it hard to help him, since he doesn’t really want to continue, yet suggesting he do something else will feel to him like you’re calling him a failure.”

“You also pay a lot of attention,” Ace pointed out as he thought about Whitebeard’s answer. It felt like an entirely accurate observation. The difference was that Ace still only remembered a few names and faces, while Whitebeard had hundreds of people to look after. How did he do that?

“As their father, that is my job.”

“I thought your job was being a crime boss.”

This time, Whitebeard laughed so hard it dissolved into a coughing fit, and Ace could only wonder what Marco’s reaction would be if he returned from his mission and found out Ace had accidentally made Whitebeard choke himself to death while he wasn’t there to help.

Thankfully, the old man calmed down after a while. “Once again, you’re not wrong, my boy, but you fundamentally misunderstand my priorities. I’m not a crime boss who’s a father on the side, I’m a father who became a crime boss because it was necessary to protect my children.”

It seemed pretty… extreme, to become a crime boss with a territory that contained more than 200 million citizens just to adopt some children, but then, desperate times called for desperate measures, and if you could do it, why not? Go big or go home. Who was Ace to judge?

They were interrupted by Izou who was carrying more paperwork before Ace could think of anything to answer, and he took the opportunity to quietly slip away. He didn’t know what to say, because he was pretty sure Whitebeard had been entirely serious in what he said, and what did you respond to that kind of dedication? Nothing seemed good enough. Especially when Ace couldn’t be honest himself.

* * *

The way to the newspaper archive didn’t take long, but Ace used it to try and focus his thoughts on the task ahead of him. He didn’t know how many articles the Whitebeards kept, but if they had a room just for them, it was probably a lot.

Opening the door, the smell of old paper and dust practically assaulted his nose, but after letting the door open for a while and opening the one tiny window the basement had, it didn’t look all that bad. There was a lot of dust, sure, but all the newspapers were sorted in boxes that were labelled by date and stored in order, so finding something specific should be very easy. He just needed to get a vacuum cleaner and some dust rags first.

Ace got to work once he got his cleaning supplies, and it really only took about two hours to get the entire room as clean as a basement could be. He’d meant it when he said he didn’t half-ass anything, but he also wasn’t about to polish this to perfection when it was already perfectly fine as it was.

He was here for something else. Scanning the boxes, the newest ones were from last year, while the oldest ones dated almost 50 years back. But those early years had way less boxes, it looked like they only seriously started collecting around 30 years ago. Still, it should be enough.

Ace started with very new ones anyway, pulling out a box from last year, just to check what sort of stuff they collected. The first thing he noticed was that the papers were trimmed down, all the additional ads were removed, as were usually the sports parts and others that were probably deemed irrelevant. They also didn’t have a paper for every single day, but most of them.

With the missing papers, well, missing, it was impossible to know why, but at least all the ones that were there had one thing in common: They talked about the Whitebeards somehow, or about one of the other emperors, or any mutants or mutant issues in general.

Ace had read quite a few of these, since the boss at his last job had always bought the paper every day, and didn’t mind when Ace took it after he was done reading. This time, though, he paid special attention whenever Whitebeard and his family were mentioned. And he realized quickly that Marco hadn’t been lying when he said he was popular and an exception.

Just in the last few months of last year, there were quite a few articles about him saving people, usually children, and they loved to highlight how the Phoenix saved everyone indiscriminately.

On the other hand, when any of Whitebeard’s actions were criticized, which wasn’t rare either, Marco was never even mentioned by name, even when others like Jozu or Vista were.

It wasn’t like it was some kind of secret that Marco was affiliated with Whitebeard either, that tattoo of his always clearly visible when he was in his phoenix form, so whoever was writing these articles had to be purposefully omitting him to keep his reputation as untainted as possible.

Sometimes they even talked about him like he was an actual mythical creature. It was one thing for desperate orphans to talk that way, but this was a hugely influential newspaper that was supervised and approved of by the government. Most of the time, at least. They definitely knew better.

Honestly, it was so obvious, Ace didn’t know why he’d never noticed before. Probably because he hadn’t cared.

But now he did, and he also noticed that Thatch was the polar opposite of Marco. Regardless of what he did, any time the Darkness was mentioned, it was with a healthy amount of fearmongering. He even found an article that framed Thatch for trying to kidnap children and had Marco saving them from his evil grasp, which just couldn’t be true. Ace was sure they were both there to help the children. Or that they were both there to kill the competition and just ended up saving some kids that got caught up in it. Either way, they had to have been on that mission together.

Poor Thatch.

Switching gears, Ace picked up the oldest box next. With it being from 49 years ago, Ace was sure it wouldn’t mention Marco or Thatch, and it didn’t – they hadn’t even been born yet, presumably. But Whitebeard had, and it talked about him, though without mentioning the name Whitebeard. It just called him an earthquake mutant. It was all about the potential danger he could cause.

And the next and only other paper in that box talked about him fighting with an equally unnamed and equally dangerous and abhorrent fire mutant, and Ace quickly put the newspaper back and sealed the box, shoving it back in its place.

Of course, there was no avoiding that guy if he looked into Whitebeard’s past. That was the source of all of Ace’ problems.

Fuck, he wanted to be a coward a little while longer, but he didn’t want to run away.

Eventually, he decided to take a box from the year 792. He swiftly ignored every paper that talked about Gold Roger, and instead pulled out one that mentioned Marco on the front page.

The contrast to the recent articles was staggering. Not only did it call Marco one of Whitebeard’s ‘soldiers’ along with Vista and Whitey Bay, it was definitely meant to make people afraid of him. It even contained a section speculating that he would soon become a beast of massive size, since he’d definitely grown quite a bit since his first sighting.

Ace could only assume that meant Marco was still a growing teenager at the time, which put him at around… 40 now?

The thought of a small phoenix chick Marco was pretty adorable though, and Ace was tempted to go back a few years and see if he could find a photo of that somewhere. But maybe it would be easier to ask Whitebeard for that, surely he had childhood photos of Marco somewhere. Lots of these articles didn’t have photos, it would be a pain to look, with no guarantee for success.

No, Ace decided to skip forward instead. Next, year 797. The year Ace was born, so no more risk of Roger. The box even had the newspaper that was published on January 1st, and it was kinda cool to see, even though of course he wasn’t mentioned at all. Still, it was not only his birthday but also the day his mother died, so Ace put it back as well, once again looking for Marco instead.

Surprisingly, he found Thatch first, as a huge article featured him. It even had a picture. Thatch, definitely still way smaller than today, next to Whitebeard’s imposing figure. Wearing all black under a black cloak, a black mask over half his face doing very little to hide how young he looked.

Cute. Not imposing or mysterious at all. No wonder everyone made fun of him.

Scanning a few more articles, Ace noticed more of the people he knew were being mentioned now, like Jozu, or Izou, or Blamenco. Not Haruta or Deuce, and obviously not any of the kids, but the family was clearly growing.

Marco though was pretty much at the same status as he was in present day. A few articles even outright called him a hero or tried to argue for mutant rights just based on him being such a good guy, something Ace hadn’t even seen in the recent newspapers.

A feeling of dread and resignation started settling in Ace’ stomach.

There was no point putting it off any longer, was there? Ace pulled out the box from the year 795, and specifically took the issues from June 26th to 28th, to find exactly what he was looking for: the reason Marco was so popular, and also the day Thatch was found by Whitebeard.

Something so terrible it felt like the world was ending. Something that could make even nobles be grateful to a mutant. Something that still lingered in the memory of everyone that experienced it, 20 years after it happened. Something that could only be described as an apocalypse.

Something like Roger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter will be very, very special, so look forward to it ;)


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the story starts, there's history. And people living that history.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said the last chapter was the longest by a chunk, but that was 8k, and this one is almost 13k... whoops
> 
> I hope y'all appreciate how much math I had to do to get this timeline right, considering everyone's birthdays and everything. but if you find one that's off by a year or smth, I don't care anymore. fuck it. if you wanna know, I figured they would start counting years after whatever happened in the void century in this universe, and have that be around 800 years ago, and make the year 800 the birth year of the most special boy in the universe, luffy (tho he isn't in this chapter he's too baby for that)
> 
> idk if you can tell from this, but the first time I thought up this AU, it was focused on shanks and buggy, but that idea never really got any plot and I got sidetracked with all the acemarco stuff you've been reading, but even if it will never be a proper fic, here's their backstory (and everyone else's) as a treat
> 
> WARNINGS: a child dies (or is dead, I guess) this chapter. skip squard's part if you don't want to read about that. the only named characters who die are roger and rouge because that's how the story goes... can't help it. but a lot of unnamed characters die off-screen and a few here and there on screen, but it's not described in detail. also torture including non-consensual drugging is in this chapter, tho I've tried to make it as non-graphic and mostly off-screen as possible.
> 
> still, there's fun parts too, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

_April 7 th, 755. Edward Newgate (10 years old)_

As the sun was slowly setting, cold was settling into the overcrowded bedroom, an icy wind blowing through the broken window, carrying the last traces of winter with it even as the daytime weather had been getting warmer over the past few weeks.

Children huddled together, sharing the few beds and blankets the orphanage provided for them. Only Edward sat alone, too big already to share his bed, and too strong for anyone to want to risk it anyway. His hug could crush another child, and the earth rumbled if he did decide to throw a punch.

He didn’t really mind, he wasn’t fond of trying to fight for scraps of food like the other children had to, he liked being able to get his fair share without question. But in this lonely place where it seemed like nobody had a future, it took the one shred of human proximity from him that he used to get as a toddler. Even here, in this place filled with outcasts, he was cast out.

The door opened, revealing the face of Nancy, the elderly caretaker who’d been in charge of the orphanage ever since Edward could remember. “Ed,” she called out, “can you come outside for a moment? Someone is here to see you.”

He didn’t really want to leave the warm confines of his blanket, but he got up anyway, curiosity taking over. Nobody had come to see him in a long, long time. He had no relatives, no friends that would come here, and nobody would even consider adopting him at this point.

But outside, there was a whole group of men waiting for him. What could they want?

“That’s the child you’re suspecting?”

There was another man approaching Edward from the side before Nancy could answer, but all of a sudden, there was no doubt in his mind what was happening, and his body reacted immediately.

Edward threw his fist into the face of the man right next to him, the nose breaking under his knuckles with a satisfying crack. All the other men immediately pulled out weapons, but a swing of his arm in their general direction cracked the air, sending a shockwave their way.

“Ed, stop resisting, these men only want to help you.” Nancy put a gentle hand on his shoulder, but he knew even she didn’t believe what she said. He wasn’t stupid. The man whose nose he had broken had been carrying a collar, and even though Edward wasn’t entirely sure if his abilities made him a mutant, he wouldn’t risk finding out from the marines.

With a quick elbow into Nancy’s gut, nothing was holding him back anymore, and he started running, away from the only place that could ever be considered something like home to him.

He didn’t turn around to look if Nancy got back up or not. There was no point. No point being upset either. He definitely didn’t have any family now, but the truth was, he never really had any to begin with.

Maybe if he started looking for other people like himself, he could find himself one.

* * *

_August 25 th, 755. Portgas D. Rouge (12 years old)_

Her feet traced the now familiar way through the streets of East Blue, the bag on her shoulder heavy with the books she’d borrowed from the library. Two for her lessons, and two she found interesting. Her sandals were starting to get worn out, she noticed, but summer would be over soon, maybe if she kept wearing them for now, she could get a pair in a bigger size next year. Or maybe it wouldn’t matter.

Her idle thoughts were interrupted by a sudden wave of heat from her back, and she turned around just in time to see a giant fireball dissipate into nothingness. As she stared to figure out what happened, a single boy turned the corner, rushing past her at incredible speed.

Even then, she could clearly see the wild grin on his face, framed by unruly black hair. She watched the boy skitter to a halt a little down the street, hastily looking around before jumping into a row of bushes. His straw hat got stuck at first, but he quickly pulled it inside as well, hiding from view completely.

With a shrug, Rouge continued on her way, but she didn’t get very far. A squadron of marines rounded the same corner as the boy, and they stopped when they reached her.

Fear settled into her stomach, even though she knew they weren’t looking for her. Keep smiling, be polite, they would never know.

“Did you see a boy running through here? We’re looking for one about this tall, wearing a straw hat, black hair and torn clothes. He’s a very dangerous criminal, so be careful even if you didn’t see him.”

Yeah, right. A mutant is what that boy was. One with fire powers, if she had to make an educated guess. Rouge gave the marine her most innocent smile. “I saw him, officer! He went into that alley over there. Good luck catching him. You’re so cool!” The marine blushed, and quickly ordered his squad to follow him through the tight alley to pursue the boy.

Rouge went back on her way home, but after a minute or so, the boy from earlier caught up to her. Really, he should’ve stayed hidden longer.

“Hey, hey, wait! You totally saved me back there, don’t just run away. Thanks a bunch for getting those idiots on the wrong trail!”

“You’re welcome.” The boy’s grin was infectious, she couldn’t help but smile back at him. “We gotta stick together, right? Can’t have them catch any of us. It’s just common courtesy.”

“Cour-what?”

“Courtesy. It’s like being polite.”

“Ohhh, you’re smart! Wait, why would they catch you? You’re a mutant, too? What can you do? I can make fire!” The boy’s eyes were sparkling, but Rouge wished he hadn’t yelled that word like that. Someone could always hear, her parents had warned her. Keep quiet.

But that boy had already been discovered, so that argument was probably lost on him. “Look six,” she answered his question, knowing it was far less impressive than his fire.

For the first time, the boy lost his grin, and he stared at her confusion. “Do you mean you’re not six years old?”

Rouge knew she looked the part, so the confusion was understandable. The boy was probably around her age, but he was way taller, she had to crane her neck to look up to him. “I’m twelve.”

“That’s cool!” The grin was back immediately. “I’m 13. Name’s Roger, by the way.”

“Rouge.”

Her parents had always told her not to give out her name to strangers, but somehow, Roger didn’t seem like he would misuse that information. He’d given out his own name first, anyway.

“Oh, right! You saved me earlier, I should thank you. Girls like shiny things, right? I found this yesterday.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a single marble and handing it to Rouge, who took it on reflex.

As she held it up into the light, she found a tiny crack, but it still was a deep, gorgeous red that shone in the sunshine. “Very pretty,” she judged. “Thank you, Roger.”

“No problem. I gotta run, don’t want the marine morons to find me again, but don’t worry, we’ll definitely see each other again!”

Roger sounded absolutely sure, waving at her before he ran away, leaving as quickly as he’d shown up.

Now, Rouge knew she wouldn’t stay around these parts for much longer, having already lived here for a little over two years, and her parents would avoid her getting found out by moving somewhere else entirely in the city, probably North or West Blue. Still, she found herself believing Roger. One day, they would meet again.

* * *

_May 5 th, 761. Silvers Rayleigh (19 years old)_

He was just enjoying his day, lounging on a very nice porch in a very comfortable rocking chair that he’d gotten by pretending to be the grandson of the very nice old lady who’d lived here before but had unfortunately passed away, when a shadow fell over him.

“Hey, you, you look bored. What’s your name?”

“Rayleigh,” he answered without thinking, peeking at the young man with the straw hat that was grinning at him, “and this is my lawn you’re standing on. I believe what you’re doing is called trespassing.”

The guy had the nerve to laugh and wave him off. “I’m Roger! You and me, we can turn the world upside down. All I need is a place to sleep, and you’ve got a very nice house. Way too big for just one person, wouldn’t you say?”

Rayleigh raised his eyebrows at the stranger that had identified himself as Roger. “You expect me to let you move in when we haven’t even known each other for a minute?” What a ballsy request, out of the blue. Absolutely insane. Who would say yes to that?

“Of course! It was fate that you and me met here today, Rayleigh. If we team up, the city won’t know what hit it. Doesn’t that get you excited?”

Flames literally sprouted from the corners of Roger’s mouth, showing how excited he was at the thought. A mutant. Roger was a mutant, and he’d just shown Rayleigh, without a care in the world. If Rayleigh had ever met a mutant before, he didn’t know, because they’d all been smart enough to not let a human like him know.

Roger, though, clearly had no such inhibitions. Letting him move in, even talking to him more than Rayleigh already had, would not only be a crime – which he didn’t really care about, he wasn’t exactly the most law-abiding guy in the world – it was sure to spell loads and loads of trouble.

So why the hell was he considering it?

* * *

_November 3 rd, 776. Charlotte Perospero (7 years old)_

His lungs burned as he struggled to get enough air into them, his legs protesting every further step he took. But Perospero didn’t slow down, running as fast as possible, clutching Broyé tighter in his arms and only turning his head occasionally to see if Katakuri was still keeping up and holding Brûlée safely.

Mom needed to stop bringing them to these mutant meetings. Marines got wind of them too often, and no matter what she believed, her kids weren’t perfectly capable of fending for themselves just because their mutant powers had awakened.

Katakuri was only five.

Sure, his mochi powers had a lot of potential, but it was a little much for him to fight off trained soldiers while defending not just himself but a literal infant on top of that.

It wasn’t like Perospero didn’t get it. Mom wanted a world where everyone could live together peacefully. She was doing this for them, for their future. She even worked with people she couldn’t stand for their sake, like that Whitebeard guy, and of course Rocks. They had to work together if they wanted to achieve change, and it only followed that the marines would target them, they were scared.

But Perospero was scared, too. Scared for his life, scared to lose his family, scared of this world that feared them so much.

He couldn’t let it show. When shots rang out behind them again, he turned around, creating a wall of candy to block the way. It wouldn’t stop the marines, the candy broke too easily, but it would slow them down. They just needed to find a place to hide now, they were far away enough from the fight that they would be safe.

Damn it, he wanted to go home. But he had to stop himself from going in that direction, couldn’t risk leading the marines right to where Compote was taking care of all of their younger siblings with the exception of the two very youngest that he and Katakuri were carrying right now.

A tug on his arm diverted his attention to Katakuri, who was pointing at a very narrow alley that the adult soldiers would have trouble squeezing through, but wouldn’t slow kids like them down much.

Blinking away the tears that had formed in his eyes – from fear or the relief of a way out, he didn’t know – he nodded, and followed his younger brother into the alley, hoping it would bring some distance between them and the marines.

He had to focus. Find a good hiding spot. He was the oldest brother, after all. He’d protect all of his younger siblings until Mom made the world better and he wouldn’t have to anymore.

Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long. The adults had a plan, they just needed to prepare some more before it could happen. At least, that’s what Perospero got from listening in on the talks they had when they met up.

There was no doubt in his mind they would succeed. Nobody was stronger than his mother, after all.

* * *

_October 14 th, 781. Edward Newgate (36 years old)_

The bottle of sake was empty way too quickly. He still wasn’t as drunk as he’d like to be. Barely drunk at all.

Nothing was going right.

Rocks was insane. Too blinded by power and his ideals to see reality. Whitebeard couldn’t even really blame Roger for teaming up with Garp to fight them, it wouldn’t have ended well. Rocks had been too evil. He still blamed Roger though. Maybe Garp was a fun guy, but he was still a marine. Fuck him. And Roger. And Rocks. All of them.

At least Linlin got all her children away before they could be seriously harmed, along with the fish boy. Kids deserved so much better than this shitty world.

A gunshot rang in his ears. For a moment, Whitebeard was tempted to just ignore it. It had nothing to do with him. This wasn’t exactly the best part of town; shots being fired wasn’t a rare occurrence. His mood was already shitty, why should he have to deal with whatever was going on there?

But he went anyway. Not for any particular reason, just because he really didn’t have anything else to do or anywhere else to go. If his sake hadn’t been empty, maybe he’d have ignored it.

Another gunshot made it easy for him to track down the location of the incident. As he got closer, the crying of a child could be heard between the loud bangs of the gunshots, and Whitebeard hurried up his steps.

He arrived just in time to watch a balding man shoot a little boy straight through the head, while a blonde woman watched with a disgusted look on her face.

The poor boy fell over from the impact of the shot, and for a moment Whitebeard’s heart sank at having just witnessed a child die, but to his immense surprise, the child got back up, blue flames sprouting from the wound until it was entirely healed.

What an incredible ability. Still, the man with the gun only seemed to be enraged by it. “Why won’t you just die? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry,” the boy wailed, “I can’t help it! It just happens! Please, dad, I just want to go home.”

The little boy stumbled toward what was apparently his father, reaching out for him, only to be met with another gunshot into his shoulder that was once again swiftly healed by a burst of blue flame. “Don’t touch me,” the man hissed.

“Please, mom,” the boy begged, now turning towards the woman, but she took a step backwards, only looking more disgusted.

“Don’t call me that,” she shrieked, “I don’t remember giving birth to an _animal_!”

Whitebeard decided he’d seen and heard enough. He closed the remaining distance between himself and the family – if you could even call it that – and swiftly threw a punch that shattered the man’s gun into a thousand pieces. And if the guy’s hand shattered alongside it, well, he clearly wasn’t using the bones for anything valuable, so nothing was lost.

“Leave that boy alone,” he commanded, and both adults immediately stumbled backwards, before breaking into a run, panic clear in their faces.

Alright, now what?

Whitebeard turned to face the boy, who was sitting on the ground, still crying, while staring at him with wide eyes. And maybe Whitebeard had no idea what to do, but he knew just leaving this child was not an option.

“Are you alright?” He knelt down, trying to keep his voice as gentle as possible so he wouldn’t scare the boy any more than he probably already was.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” the boy answered, and Whitebeard took that to mean the boy _had_ felt the pain of getting shot, making anger coil deep in his stomach. If he didn’t have to consider that it would traumatize the boy further, he’d definitely murder the fleeing cowards with no mercy. “But my parents-“

The boy made an attempt to go after them, but Whitebeard picked him up before he could get anywhere, letting him sit on one of his arms. Fuck, he was so _small_ , how could anyone even consider shooting him?

“These people are not your parents.” Whitebeard’s voice was firm. “No parent would ever try to harm their child or call them an animal.” Not even Linlin, crazy as she was, had ever actively tried to hurt her own children.

“But I heal,” the boy weakly protested, tears subsiding and making way for a tired sense of defeat that no child this young should know, “and she wasn’t wrong.”

Before Whitebeard could protest that mutants were _not_ animals, the boy engulfed himself in flames. But this time, they didn’t heal anything, instead deforming the boy’s body into something else entirely. Within all of two seconds, a bird made of blue and golden fire perched on his arm.

“You’re a phoenix,” Whitebeard breathed out, amazed at the gorgeous and frankly adorable display on his arm, “what a wonderful gift you’ve been given.”

The boy turned back to his human form, and his face looked just as defeated as before. “It’s nice to be a bird sometimes, I like it,” he admitted, “but now I’m all alone because of it.”

And wasn’t that just the crux of the issue, the same one Whitebeard and so, so many other mutants had been facing for decades.

“I know.” There really were no words he could find to console the boy, to ease this pain. “I’ve been alone for a long, long time as well.” The boy looked up at him, and even though he surely was too young to truly understand, it seemed like he did. “Will you tell me your name?”

“Marco.”

It was at this moment that he decided. “I’ll make sure you won’t ever have to be alone, Marco.”

Maybe the streets of Raftel had never been kind enough to give Edward Newgate the family he’d been searching for all his life, but Whitebeard could and would provide it to Marco.

The tiny hint of a smile on Marco’s face told him it would absolutely be worth the effort.

* * *

_March 7 th, 783. Vista (11 years old)_

When the door opened, Vista quickly retreated into a corner. He was still unsure about this new situation, these people who wanted him to call them family. Whitebeard seemed kind, and he’d given him food and a comfortable bed, but he was also huge and incredibly powerful, and Vista couldn’t help but be a little scared.

And his two new siblings were… weird. Both of them were younger than him, yet insisted they were the older siblings just for having been taken in by Whitebeard first. Marco especially, who was the youngest and the first to be picked up.

The newcomer was a dark-haired man with a moustache, who strolled right into their small home like he lived there, greeting Whitebeard with a grin. “Yo, Newgate, how’s it going? I see your little kindergarten has grown again.”

Vista wanted to protest that he was way past kindergarten age, but somehow the guy was way too intimidating. Whitebeard didn’t correct the guy either, he just grinned back. “That’s Vista, isn’t he adorable?”

Adorable wasn’t exactly the word Vista wanted to use for himself, but what could he do?

As the adults started talking, his new siblings snuck up to him, placing themselves a little too closely on each side of him. “Hey, hey, Vista,” Marco whispered in one ear, “try your powers on Roger.”

“What?” he whispered back, terrified at the prospect. “I can’t just randomly attack a guest!”

“Come on,” Whitey Bay urged him on from his other side, “it’ll be hilarious! If it works, you can forever brag about having won against Gol D. Roger! I’ll help you, too, we can combine your petals with my frost breath to get them to him faster. It’s a perfect plan!”

“Yeah, and don’t worry, if he does notice and attacks, I’ll stand in front of you to tank the damage!”

Vista had no idea why Marco’s eyes sparkled so much while he was suggesting to use himself as a living shield. Wasn’t that Roger guy kinda famous for being powerful? Was it really okay to try a sneak attack on him? In their own home? Could Marco even shield him? And wouldn’t the furniture get damaged if a fight broke out?

Why didn’t his siblings have any sense for danger? Both of them had wanted to try out the effects of his mutation immediately after learning about them. Turned out, his petals only affected Marco for a second before his phoenix fire healed him from it, and if he was in his full phoenix form, the flames destroyed his petals with no effect at all. Whitey Bay could be affected, but if she noticed on time, her frost breath was stronger than his petals and she could blow them away easily, even back to Vista, though he himself didn’t feel any effect from his petals either.

With shaking hands, Vista summoned a few of his petals, enough to paralyze an adult man. If he was gonna do it, he’d do it right. Couldn’t look like a coward in front of his new siblings. Whitey gave him a thumbs up before she blew the petals in Roger’s direction, leaving tiny snowflakes behind on Vista’s fingers.

All three kids watched with bated breath as the petals floated toward Roger, but just before they reached him, fire sprouted from Roger’s back, incinerating the petals without any trace. Marco jumped in front of his siblings as promised, but the fire never even reached them.

“Care to explain what these petals do?” Roger asked, a little disgruntled, but Whitebeard simply laughed.

“I think you just wasted your perfect chance to find out. But I’m sure Vista will be up for another demonstration if you ask nicely.”

Marco ran up to Whitebeard, planting himself on the big man’s lap. Vista followed, standing next to his adoptive father, figuring it was the safest place to be if Roger actually was angry.

“The petals do nothing to me,” Marco bragged, “because my fire is way cooler than yours!”

“Of course, my fire is way hotter than that of such a little brat like you!” Roger sounded like a petulant child himself, and Vista relaxed a little. It didn’t seem like he would attack, even though Marco was being a brat, sticking his tongue out at him. “Seriously, Newgate, why do you keep doing this to yourself?”

“Because there’s no treasure more precious than family.”

* * *

_December 29 th, 787. Buggy (7 years old)_

His stomach rumbled, but he did his best to ignore it, opting instead to cuddle up a little closer to Shanks, trying to gain some semblance of warmth from the other boy. His skin was just as cold as Buggy’s though, with nothing to shield them from the cold.

It was getting dark, and nobody with any sense was still out, leaving the small cup they’d placed in front of themselves to show to the world they’d fallen low enough to resort to begging pretty much entirely empty. It would be a fruitless endeavour to stay, but they had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Getting up would only waste energy and warmth.

If they were still alive by tomorrow, maybe they could go get some food with the few small coins in their cup.

A whistling sound pulled Buggy out of his thoughts. A guy came walking down the street, a happy grin on his face even though he looked dressed for summer rather than the snow that was slowly falling to the streets, all the way to the straw hat on his head.

Buggy pretended to be asleep as the guy passed them without paying them any mind, but he spotted a nice, thick wallet in his back pocket.

Good, the guy looked like an idiot. Buggy quickly glanced to both sides. Nobody else was around. Shanks seemed barely conscious next to him. They needed that cash if they didn’t want to freeze to death one of these nights.

Swallowing any fear he definitely felt, Buggy detached his right hand, letting it float after the stranger. Eyes on the prize, he carefully grabbed the wallet and slowly pulled it out of the guy’s pocket.

It worked, right up until the wallet slipped out of the pocket and Buggy thought he had it, but then the strange man suddenly whirled around, grabbing Buggy’s hand before he could pull it back. The sheer force of the grip made Buggy yelp in pain, and next to him, Shanks startled awake.

To his credit, the stranger only seemed mildly surprised at the disembodied floating hand holding his wallet, but he located the two kids way too fast.

If he’d had anything to drink today, Buggy would’ve probably peed himself at the sheer rage the stranger was fixating him with.

But Shanks, the idiot, the absolute moron that he was, despite technically having nothing to do with this situation, got up, pulled out the knife Buggy had stolen for him, and placed himself right between Buggy and the man that was still almost crushing his hand. “Hurt him and you’re dead,” he announced. It was probably meant to sound intimidating, but his teeth clattered from the cold, and he wasn’t even half the stranger’s height even when standing up. Still, he kept the knife up, glaring the best he could.

The stranger only laughed as he pried his wallet out of Buggy’s hand but didn’t let go. Shit. Why wasn’t he letting go? Would he hurt them? “Let’s just run,” he whispered, “it’s just a hand. I won’t die no matter what he does to it.” Not that he was looking forward to that whatever, but it was better than what the guy could do if he had all of both of them to hurt.

“Let go of his hand,” Shanks demanded, ignoring Buggy.

“Shanks,” Buggy hissed, trying to pull his friend away but having little success. Shanks stood like a rock. Damn, why was he such an idiot? This was his own fault! It wasn’t worth dying for!

In a weird twist of fate, the stranger seemed to think along similar lines. “It’s dangerous to pull a knife on me. Are you willing to die for this, Shanks?”

“Yes,” Shanks replied immediately, at the same time as Buggy whisper-shouted “No!”.

But Shanks ignored him again – that absolute fucking _moron_ – and charged the stranger.

Buggy would’ve loved to say there was a fight, or even a scuffle, but that would be giving Shanks way too much credit. The stranger easily grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the wall of the next building. Shanks crumpled to the ground immediately, not moving anymore.

No. Nononononono, that couldn’t be. Shanks couldn’t die just like that. He was such an idiot, always grinning like everything was fine even when absolutely nothing was. He’d caused Buggy nothing but trouble by following him around, not even getting shaken off when Buggy ran to East Blue.

He was the only one who’d ever stuck with Buggy.

The stranger walked over to Shanks casually, a smile so sickeningly like that of the child he’d maybe just killed still on his face, and Buggy saw red. As the guy took off his hat to place it on Shanks’ unconscious face, Buggy pulled out his own knife with his left hand, detaching it as well and sending it flying as fast as he could.

It actually hit the stranger in the side, drawing blood. But Buggy didn’t have time to celebrate. Before he could even properly react, the stranger was in front of him, delivering the hardest kick he’d ever felt to his face.

The world began spinning and then fading, and the last thing Buggy felt before he lost consciousness were warm arms gently picking him up. He hadn’t been that warm in months.

* * *

_December 30 th, 787. Silvers Rayleigh (46 years old)_

To say that Rayleigh’s mood wasn’t the best was putting it very, very mildly. At this point, he knew Roger wasn’t always reliable and loved to wander off, but he’d sent him to buy some milk yesterday morning. Just milk. Yesterday. He still wasn’t back, and it was already afternoon.

How could an adult man be so useless? He still didn’t pay any rent. Just kept bringing more weirdos to live with them. Not that Rayleigh minded them all that much, at least everyone else helped with chores and some of them even with money, but it was a matter of principle.

If Roger didn’t firmly hold the place of Rayleigh’s best friend, he would’ve thrown him out years ago.

At least by now he knew better than to worry about Roger, he’d be just fine no matter what trouble he’d been causing.

No, Rayleigh wasn’t worried at all, so he wasn’t at all relieved when Roger finally showed up. Didn’t even bother to say anything about the blood on his ripped shirt where it looked like he got stabbed. Instead, his gaze zeroed in on the two boys he was carrying, each hanging like a sack of potatoes in one of Roger’s arms.

They both looked extremely malnourished, and were sporting bandages, but they were awake and looking around. One of them had blue hair and a round red nose, almost like a clown, but it didn’t look fake, while the other’s hair was just as red, but he was actually wearing Roger’s treasured straw hat on top of it. Now that was interesting.

“Yo, I’m back,” Roger greeted them casually, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. “This is Shanks.” He gestured to the redhead he was still carrying. “And that’s Buggy. They’re gonna live with us from now on!”

Rayleigh took a deep breath. Suggesting they raise children was simultaneously the most normal and the craziest thing Roger had ever dropped on him out of the blue. He had no idea what to say to that.

“Can’t you give them to an orphanage? That’s what they’re for. Or drop them with Newgate if they’re mutants.” Because it was a real possibility that Roger would find and pick up mutant kids. He’d been looking a little jealous of Newgate recently…

These suggestions only made Roger grin like he’d won. “I could, but you see, Rayleigh, Buggy is a mutant, but Shanks isn’t, so I can’t give Buggy to anyone official, and I can’t give Shanks to Edward. Don’t you think there’s no place more perfect for them than right here? They’ll fit right in! You couldn’t possibly ask me to separate them?”

As usual, Rayleigh could already feel himself losing this argument, but he felt he couldn’t just let Roger win this easily. Kids were a big responsibility. “I get it, but can _you_ take care of them? You’ve never raised any children before.” And neither had any of them, for the record.

But Roger only laughed, as he tended to. “Of course, I’ll do great! Don’t worry. I’ll raise them, they’ll have a loving home, and Rouge will think I’m a DILF and finally go out with me. Everyone wins.”

“What’s a DILF?” Shanks asked, nothing but innocence in his young voice. Rayleigh could feel his eyebrow starting to twitch.

Buggy at least seemed to have a sense for danger, because he disassembled his torso into a few small parts to get out of Roger’s arms – and okay that was weird but not the weirdest thing he’d ever seen – and take a few quick steps backwards. Shanks remained entirely unaware of Rayleigh’s rising fury, but Scopper Gaban quickly peeled him out of Roger’s arms as well. Just in time to get him out of harm’s way as Rayleigh finally snapped and threw a punch in Roger’s face.

Fucking hell. Roger was useless, Rayleigh knew he’d have to be the one to pick up a book on parenting and call Newgate for help. But these kids needed to be fed and taken care of, so he’d do it. Roger’s carelessness wasn’t their fault.

He’d tell Roger to go and make them some cereal to get their stomachs filled a bit before dinner, but of course he hadn’t actually bought any milk.

* * *

_November 1 st, 789. Jozu (12 years old)_

This was boring. He’d been hoping that Pops meeting with the one they called the strongest mutant – which was stupid, Pops was obviously way stronger, but whatever – would be interesting and lead to something cool, but the adults had locked themselves in the kitchen to talk, not allowing any of the kids. Not even Vista, who looked particularly disgruntled about being grouped with the little kids.

Roger had brought his own brats, but they weren’t any fun either. All they were doing was fight with each other. Jozu didn’t particularly feel like trying to get along with them.

He felt much more like following Whitey, who was trying to listen in on the adults. They had to be talking about the marines, who were getting a lot bolder recently, but also started catching more and more mutants rather than just killing them on the spot. They’d always done that, sometimes, but now, for the first time ever, they’d picked powerful and loyal captured mutants and let them join the ranks of the marines.

It was twisted and disgusting, and Jozu wanted to know if they were gonna do anything about it. Maybe they could attack a labour camp, or a prison, or a re-education camp or whatever other sort of facilities there were. Jozu would definitely be ready to help out. Nobody could hurt him if he turned to diamond, so he was safe to come.

Marco almost always got to go. Because he could heal, so he was fine. It wouldn’t be fair to just leave Jozu.

But in order to not be left behind, they’d have to know what was going on first. Marco seemed totally engrossed in whatever he was reading, so he would be no help. Vista was too angry, he’d just shout.

If only Jozu’s steps weren’t so heavy, he could sneak to the door to listen in.

Or maybe he wouldn’t be so pissed if Roger’s kids stopped yelling at each other. He really didn’t care if the North Pole or the South Pole was colder. Whatever he’d do when he grew up, he’d make sure not to be a babysitter.

* * *

_July 11 th, 792. Thatch (9 years old)_

Thatch didn’t remember a single name of the people around him, but it didn’t matter. They were mutants, they shared their food with him and gave him a bed. That was all that mattered.

Not the disgusted or scared looks they kept sending his way. He was used to those.

After all, he was a monster.

Not even Thatch himself wanted to look at the darkness inside of him all that closely. It was scary. Thatch hated the dark. It was only for bad people to hide in, good people always tried to chase it away, huddle together by a light to keep themselves safe.

Thatch wasn’t welcome there. He’d bring the darkness with him.

Mutants were supposed to stick together, a tough lady had told him after she’d picked him up a year ago shortly after his powers had started showing. When his darkness had sucked her telekinesis right out of her – it hadn’t even been on purpose, Thatch hadn’t known he could do that – her face had contorted with a kind of betrayal and primal fear like Thatch had never seen before.

Her powers returned a few minutes later, but she still kicked him out.

Of course she did. Mutants stuck together, united by their powers they’d been born with. These powers made them unique, powerful, who they were.

Like an evil witch in a fairy tale who stole names or memories, Thatch could take that identity away from them. There was no way mutants would ever like him. And humans wouldn’t either, because to them, he was just another mutant.

But Thatch was too selfish to not seek out someone, _anyone_ , anyway. The darkness inside him was only ever growing, and he wanted to do whatever he could to maybe chase it away.

That evening, when everyone was just starting to go to bed, marines burst through the door with no warning. They were clearly prepared for the specific powers of all mutants present, so it wasn’t much of a fight, collars tightened around necks quickly and with little bloodshed.

Thatch didn’t struggle. It was almost a relief when the collar suppressed the darkness.

Monsters needed to be shackled. This was the happy ending of the story.

* * *

_June 25 th, 795. Shanks (15 years old)_

Shit.

Dammit, where had the marines come from? They couldn’t have known about Buggy. None of the adults were with them, so why were they being targeted?

Well, Buggy. As much as Shanks was trying to keep up with Buggy – maybe Shanks was stronger, but Buggy had always been the faster runner – nobody was paying him any mind. They only knew about Buggy. But how? For all of Roger’s stunts, he’d always been careful not to let the marines know he had children with him.

“I said wait,” Shanks yelled after his friend, getting no apparent reaction until about 30 seconds later, when Buggy turned around without a warning, three knives in each hand as they floated around him.

“And I said,” Buggy spat back with totally uncalled for rage in his voice, “leave me the fuck alone!” What the hell? Shanks hadn’t done anything! For once, Buggy had been in a good mood today, and they’d been getting along, hanging out in an arcade together and having fun. Yeah, the marines showing up sucked, but that wasn’t Shanks’ fault! “You think you’re a hero or something? The marines don’t need help from you.”

Shanks’ confusion only amplified. Why would he help the marines? “What?”

One of Buggy’s hands was now floating in front of him, an obvious threat. “Don’t take another step, shitty human! I’ll kill you!”

Shanks wasn’t deterred at all. “Bu-“ he started again, but Buggy immediately interrupted him with a shriek.

“ _Shut up!_ ”

What happened next was a blur. Shanks tried to dash forward, intending to grab Buggy by the shoulders and maybe shake some sort of sense into him. At the same time, Buggy moved his hand, what for and how exactly Shanks didn’t know, all he registered was the tell-tale sound of knives cutting through sensitive flesh as half the world suddenly turned smudged and red.

Then pain erupted from his left eye, and Shanks realized that’s what Buggy’s knives had cut.

Finally stumbling backwards, Shanks had just enough time to see the shock and guilt on Buggy’s face before he heard a voice shout “Move in!”.

His brain must’ve been paralyzed by shock, because Shanks could do nothing but watch as at least a hundred marines poured out from all directions, guns firing at Buggy all at once. Thanks to his powers, he managed to dodge most bullets, but a few still hit. Blood splattered the ground, and Shanks could hear Buggy scream.

Why was he still sitting on the ground? He needed to get up. Buggy needed help. He couldn’t escape all these marines on his own.

But just as Shanks had managed to stand up, he felt a gentle pair of hands on his shoulders, and the concerned face of a marine soldier took up most of his field of vision. No, he needed to see what was happening to Buggy-

“Hey, it’s okay, calm down. That mutant won’t hurt you anymore, and we’ve got a medic, just sit down right over there.”

No, he didn’t want to sit, he needed to help-

But a click reverberated through the air, impossibly loud.

Final.

Buggy had been caught.

They’d lost.

Hadn’t even stood a chance, still too weak to do anything. No, that wasn’t quite right, Shanks realized as a different marine started looking at his eye, and scolding him for being so reckless.

Only Shanks hadn’t been able to do anything. Buggy had realized they were surrounded, and he’d made sure Shanks would get away. He’d given up where Shanks would’ve kept fighting, and now there were gentle hands cleaning the wound over his eye rather than bullets in his body, while Buggy was dragged to a van, collared and bleeding.

Tears started streaming down his face, burning where the salt got into the open wounds.

Shanks wanted to fight, wanted to ram the knife he was carrying straight into the chest of the man who was bandaging his eye. But then it would’ve all been for nothing.

He had to help. Get help. Finally, Shanks tore himself out of his shock and away from the marine medic, breaking into a run again, now in the opposite direction. Just because he was too weak to save Buggy didn’t mean he’d just leave him to his fate.

In his entire life so far, Shanks had never cared that he wasn’t a mutant. It hadn’t ever mattered with his family – the one that counted, that he could remember as more than a blur – and he knew that humans were privileged in society, so he should consider himself lucky. But right now in this moment, he wanted nothing more. He wanted power. Something to fight back with. Or at the very least, something notable enough that the marines would capture him alongside Buggy so he wouldn’t be alone.

But all he could do was run.

His eye throbbed with every step, but Shanks barely paid it any mind. For some reason, his brain was recalling a memory from years ago instead. He’d complained to Roger about what a coward Buggy was and how it was no fun to go on adventures with him, only to be met with laughter. “ _He really is a little coward_ ,” Roger had agreed, “ _but keep him close anyway. Even I need Rayleigh to keep me alive._ ”

Shanks willed his legs to go faster, to keep going until he reached the cozy house he’d been calling home for eight years now.

Thank fuck most everyone was home. He could see Rayleigh’s shocked face at seeing him return hurt and alone, and Crocus was already getting up, the doctor obviously ready to check what exactly had happened to his face.

But Shanks went straight to Roger. Threw himself right into the arms of the strongest man he knew, knowing he’d be caught as his knees finally gave out under him.

“They got Buggy,” he sobbed, “I couldn’t do anything. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, dad, please go save him!”

Strong arms held him, one hand gently combing through his hair until Crocus gently pried him away to look at his injuries.

Shanks didn’t realize what he’d called Roger until hours later, when he’d long since left, only taking Rayleigh and Crocus with him, leaving the rest of their little mismatched family to wait in silence.

* * *

_June 26 th, 795. Buggy (15 years old)_

Everything hurt. He felt like he was drowning. There were literal holes in him, bullets still inside. His body felt too real, too close, too together. More than whatever torture they were trying to get him to spill where Roger was – like he knew, Roger never told him or anyone where he went, and Buggy wouldn’t go and sell out the safe space Shanks had hopefully run to – it was that feeling of wrongness that bothered Buggy the most. His body wasn’t supposed to stick together like this. To be tied down by gravity with no escape.

He couldn’t see. What time was it? How long had he been here? How many people were in this room, watching him suffer? Did they ever plan on stopping? And if so, would they give up on getting answers and just kill him?

Buggy didn’t want to die. He was terrified of death. Terrified of staying here, too.

He was sure he’d seen CP agents before they’d blindfolded him. Like he was someone important. Someone dangerous. Not just a kid with a mildly useful mutation. Joke was on them; Buggy had never wanted a part in all of the insane stuff the adults who raised him got up to. Didn’t know shit. They should’ve gotten Shanks, if that was what they wanted, but the government judged you by your genes, not your actions, so they ended up with the wrong teen. Served them right.

All Buggy wanted was a nice, comfortable life. Preferably he’d have lots of money and little work to do.

But no, he was stuck getting tortured, because the only person who could be bothered to pick someone like him up off the streets was the most wanted criminal in the entire city. Just his luck.

He could only hope they’d eventually realize this was pointless, and using him as bait was the far smarter option.

Buggy had little faith in anything – not in other people and certainly not in himself – but he knew for sure Roger would come looking for him, and he’d walk straight into any trap, no matter how obviously it was set, because he was an idiot just like Shanks. There was no stopping Roger when anyone of their little family was in danger or hurt. Even Buggy, who usually felt like he didn’t belong in the same room with all these crazy people. Even after he’d attacked and hurt Shanks for no good reason.

…Right?

Some kind of needle was rammed into his arm, but Buggy could barely muster the strength to scream, much less try to figure out what the hell they were doing now.

It didn’t end up mattering, because Buggy heard a loud crash, and screams, and then the entire room was too hot and he couldn’t breathe, but all he did was relax in his chair as much as his restraints allowed.

_Finally_.

The blindfold was removed, and Buggy had to blink against the blinding light of the burning room, but he quickly identified Rayleigh in front of him. He was holding a key, and the next thing Buggy knew, the collar was off, and everything was _right_ again.

Even dizzy as he was, it was no problem splitting his body up to get out of the rest of his restraints on his own. He could see Crocus pick up some kind of vial from the ground – had they injected him with whatever was in there? Probably, but if Crocus knew what it was he could counter it, no problem.

The moment Buggy’s eyes found Roger, he forgot everything else. For just a few moments, as Roger stood in the sea of flames he’d created, atop a pile of corpses, Buggy saw the demon the newspapers always described Roger as. But then those moments were over, and Roger met his eyes, his usual smile back on his face as he walked over and picked Buggy up. “Sorry it took so long, buddy.”

“Shanks?” Buggy asked, voice raspy and quiet. It hurt just to get the one word out, but he had to know.

“He’s just fine.” Roger’s voice sounded casual and confident, and Buggy allowed himself to relax in his arms. “Crocus said you didn’t hurt his eye, so no damage done.” Thank fuck. Buggy had no idea what he’d have done if he’d accidentally blinded Shanks in one eye or something. He’d just wanted to chase him away, but that stupid, trusting idiot hadn’t ever expected Buggy to hurt him and moved forward when Buggy had expected the opposite.

But everything was okay now. They could go home, and Crocus would take care of them both, and Buggy would have nightmares about this for a few years, but it would be fine.

Except then Roger handed him to Rayleigh, and Buggy started to get the sinking feeling that nothing would be fine ever again. He couldn’t explain why, but he kept one of his hands on Roger’s shirt even as Rayleigh carried him away, not wanting to let go of Roger. Crocus followed them, but Roger stayed in place.

Buggy felt a warm hand gently caressing his own until the distance between his body and hand became too great to hold it where it was, and he had to let go.

His hand snapped back into place, and the sky lit up with fire.

It was the last he ever saw of Roger.

* * *

_June 26 th, 795. Whitey Bay (22 years old)_

The smoke rising in the distance was the final proof that it was real. Roger had started what they’d been planning for years, except with a lot more rage and destruction, and only giving them a warning that he’d do it today a few hours ago.

She wasn’t sure what exactly had happened, but Pops had been unable to reason with him over the phone. Not even a little bit like he usually did. Whitey had only been privy to one side of that conversation, but from Pops’ words and his agitated and worried tone, something terrible must’ve happened, to the point where Pops had to admit he’d react in a similar manner to what Roger was doing right now if it happened to him.

She took that to mean something had happened to at least one of Roger’s kids, and as annoying as she found them, she could only hope both of them were still alive.

But she had to focus. Whatever the cause, they were finally starting their raids on every single facility used to hold mutants in the entire city. All of them at once, with Roger acting as the most potent distraction one could use.

The marines wouldn’t have the manpower to stop them. A lot of innocent children and people imprisoned their whole lives would gain their freedom today.

She glanced over to Atmos, who’d lead this raid alongside her. Rather than meeting her eyes, he was worriedly staring at the darkening sky in the east where the fire was spreading.

Her gaze followed his, worry gnawing at her all the same. Marco, that softie, had asked not to be part of any of the raids. Not because he didn’t want to fight, but because he wanted to keep the casualties Roger’s distraction would cause to a minimum. Especially now that Roger was clearly pissed off beyond belief and wouldn’t take care with his fire, Whitey couldn’t really blame him for it.

She could only hope the marines would take his help and not try to use this chance to capture her bird brother.

* * *

_June 27 th, 795. Crocus (49 years old)_

Closing the door behind him as quietly as he could, Crocus slowly made his way down the stairs. Finally, the boys were asleep. The drug the CP agents had given Buggy thankfully hadn’t been dangerous, but it caused him to have delusions, and Shanks had insisted to stay with Buggy until all of the imaginary dangers in his mind faded.

Crocus hadn’t been able to tell him no. Not even when he crawled into bed right next to Buggy. Medically, it was inadvisable, Buggy was hurt in too many places in too many different ways, but hell, it made Crocus sick seeing it, he couldn’t imagine how Shanks felt. And Buggy hadn’t let go of Shanks either, even when he passed out.

Both of these boys would blame themselves come morning, and Crocus had no idea what to tell them when that happened.

The house was quiet, and Crocus found Rayleigh sitting at the kitchen table by himself, a single candle illuminating the large, empty room. The clock on the wall showed 2:30am, meaning Crocus had spent hours taking care of the boys.

Hours Rayleigh had evidently spent emptying way too many bottles of assorted alcoholic drinks.

“He doesn’t plan on coming back,” Rayleigh told him, voice way too sober for how drunk he had to be, and whatever Crocus had been about to say got stuck in his throat.

Oh.

Roger hadn’t told them anything like that, but if Rayleigh said it, Crocus didn’t doubt it for a second.

It would be just like Roger anyway to refuse to die of the illness Crocus had been treating for years, instead going out like the inferno he was, raging over the city in search of revenge and simultaneously freeing thousands, maybe tens of thousands of mutants because despite everything, Roger had a family, and friends and allies and rivals and frenemies all over the city, mutants and humans alike.

The empty house was proof that this opportunity wouldn’t go to waste. Everyone was out, participating in the raids that would free however many mutants as was possible in the time Roger could give them.

Crocus himself wasn’t much of a fighter, but he knew he’d have his hands full soon with treating everyone’s injuries. He really should go to sleep to be prepared for all that work. But instead, he took a seat next to Rayleigh and poured himself a drink as well. Just this one, just for a few minutes.

Even as the world outside burned to the ground, this house – along with the small library Rouge ran all the way over in South Blue – would always be safe. They could watch the little candle flicker and pretend it would be in their control if or when the fire was extinguished.

Could pretend it was the alcohol that was making their throats and eyes burn.

* * *

_June 27 th, 795. Squard (28 years old)_

Smoke was burning in his lungs. The door to his bedroom was on fire. Why was it on fire? Why was everything on fire?

He’d seen the smoke rising in the distance yesterday evening, but it had been so far away. The wind was blowing so the fire wouldn’t spread in this direction. That’s what everyone had said. No need to panic or evacuate.

But now the fire was here, and Squard had no way of getting out of his apartment on the sixth floor, or even a way to get to his little baby girl that still had to be in the room next to his.

His dresser started burning, and the ceiling was starting to crumble. The window was starting to look like a tempting option. But his daughter… Squard’s gaze went back to his bedroom door, his eyes stinging just from looking at the fire.

If he was going to die anyway, he should at least save his daughter. Should burst through the flames and carry her out, even if he had to jump six stories down. Maybe at least she could live.

Before he could carry out that plan, the window shattered with a loud crash. For a moment, Squard thought he had to be hallucinating the giant flaming bird in his bedroom, but then very real talons grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him out the window.

The bird went to leave the moment he’d placed Squard on the ground, as safely outside of the range of any of the surrounding burning buildings as possible, but Squard desperately grabbed him. “My daughter’s still inside,” he told the bird, hoping it would understand and help, “please, you have to get her out, she’s only one…”

With a nod, the bird flapped its mighty wings and shot back up into the air, back into the window it had broken earlier.

One of Squard’s neighbours, the nice middle-aged lady from the seventh floor who loved to listen to metal way too loudly then apologize to everyone with amazing baked goods, tried to hand him a water bottle and guide him away from the fire, but he remained in place, fixated on the window.

It felt like an eternity passed until the bird showed up again, carrying a tiny body in its talons.

Relief flooded through Squard for all of two seconds until he actually got to hold his baby girl and look at her. Her body wasn’t moving. Lifeless. Burned. Broken.

“Sorry,” the bird choked out with a surprisingly human voice, “sorry. She was crushed because parts of the ceiling fell down, I-“ The bird cut itself off. “I’m sorry.”

And then it moved on, pulling people out of the building across the street.

Squard stayed exactly where he was, staring at his daughter’s dead face, bruised and bloodied, and reality blurred as his heart shattered.

Someone – a marine, judging by the uniform, probably switched to firefighting duty due to a lack of enough actual firefighters – eventually just picked him up and carried him away to a tent with others who were in a similar state of shock as he was.

It didn’t matter, he didn’t really pay attention, not until the marine was talking to another one and Squard heard them say something incredible.

This wasn’t a natural fire. It didn’t follow the usual rules, and it couldn’t really be put out, because a mutant was spreading it, wave after wave, consuming more and more of the city.

If nothing else, Squard now had a name he could pin the blame for all of his misery on.

Gold Roger.

* * *

_June 27 th, 795. Thatch (12 years old)_

The world was burning and the walls of the re-education camp with it, but Thatch was content sitting in the corner of the tool shed, hiding while everyone else was running away. None of the other mutants in the facility would come looking for him, and he could only hope those that had attacked wouldn’t look in here.

At first it seemed like it, but no such luck. The door opened to reveal a giant man with a crescent-shaped moustache.

Whitebeard. Thatch recognized him immediately. One of the most dangerous mutants out there. One of the worst ones. The one they warned him about the most in school, because he had a habit of kidnapping mutant children and using them as soldiers for his personal army.

As Whitebeard slowly approached him with keys in hand, Thatch only shrunk further into his corner, for once wishing the darkness would swallow him.

“There’s no reason to be afraid.” Whitebeard’s voice was surprisingly gentle. “I’ll just open the collar and then you can run away. You can come with us or go home or go with the other mutants we freed, it’s your choice.”

“No,” Thatch answered, “I want to stay here. Please leave the collar on.”

That made Whitebeard frown. “If I take the collar off, will that harm yourself or anyone else without you being able to control it?”

Thatch shook his head. “No, but my powers are scary.”

Sadly, Whitebeard didn’t seem to think that was a valid argument. He stepped forward, kneeling down in front of Thatch, and then his big hands gently unlocked the collar, letting it fall to the ground.

Darkness surged over Thatch immediately. He’d almost forgotten what it felt like, or maybe it hadn’t been this intense three years ago, but either way, the world turned black and Thatch felt like he was floating in nothingness for a few seconds until he felt a gentle touch on his cheek.

Startled, he felt the darkness pull, just like it had years ago, and a power like nothing he’d ever experienced before flowed through him. He balled his hands into fists, trying to get up and get away, but the earth crumbled beneath him and the wall behind him shattered.

…What?

Whitebeard looked as astonished as Thatch felt. No wonder, that incredible power, it had to be his. But Thatch had gone and just stolen it, and now he couldn’t even control it.

Thatch closed his eyes in fear, expecting Whitebeard to try and attack or kill him, but no pain came. Just his voice again. “Careful with that. Just relax, unclench your fists and move slowly, then nothing will happen.”

How was he still so calm? There was no way he knew anything about Thatch’s powers, he should be out of his mind right now, wondering if he’d ever get his powers back. But even when Thatch opened his eyes again to check Whitebeard’s expression, it was just filled with concern for Thatch.

With a shuddering breath, Thatch tried to follow the advice, relaxing his body as much as he could. He managed to get up without causing any damage this time.

Whitebeard smiled at him encouragingly, and Thatch found himself to be unable to feel anything but confusion. “Why aren’t you mad? Or scared?”

“Gurararara, it takes more than a brat to scare me. And I’m not going to be mad at you for defending yourself. I’m the one who took off your collar and touched you without permission.”

Thatch could feel tears starting to form in his eyes. “But I can-“

“It doesn’t matter what you can do in theory. I will only judge you by what you choose to do with your powers. And from what I’ve seen, you seem to be a very kind boy who doesn’t want to hurt anyone. I’d be honoured to call someone like you my family.”

“You’d still take me with you?”

“Of course.”

The words were said with so much ease, as if it wasn’t even worth asking the question, and Thatch could feel a tiny sliver of hope enter his heart. He dashed forward to cling to Whitebeard, and even as the ground shook under his feet and the roof started creaking dangerously upon impact, Whitebeard didn’t even flinch, just picked Thatch up and carried him outside.

Out of the shed, and out of the facility that had housed Thatch for the last three years.

The world was burning around them, the sky pitch-black even though it was afternoon, the smell of smoke and death permeating the air inescapably. It was what Thatch had heard hell described as, but in the arms carrying him away from all that, Thatch felt safer than he ever had.

Maybe even the monster deserved a happy ending sometimes.

* * *

_June 28 th, 795. Monkey D. Garp (54 years old)_

His marine-issued dagger cut through flesh with a sickening squelch, and it took a few seconds for Garp to realize he’d actually managed to stab Roger right through the chest.

Blood started seeping out of that wound, and even though Roger’s trademark grin didn’t falter for a second, Garp knew there was no coming back from this. No matter what people thought, Roger’s body wasn’t made of fire, he was flesh and blood like everyone else. He’d die from this.

Roger stumbled forward, the flames on his body slowly simmering out, and Garp caught him on reflex. Garp would probably have some burn scars from this for the rest of his life, and yet he couldn’t help but feel like Roger had lost on purpose in the end.

“Why?” Garp heard himself ask, not even sure what exactly he was asking about.

“You touched one of my boys,” Roger answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “but this has been a long time coming. All of this. It was never gonna end any other way.”

Garp wanted to protest, wanted to start up their old argument again how they could achieve peace between humans and mutants, but Roger didn’t give him the time to do it. There was no time left for him to repeat such things.

“Listen to me, Garp.” Roger’s voice was starting to become weak and raspy. “I have a child.”

…What? Out of all the things Roger could’ve chosen to say with his last few breaths, this wasn’t at all what Garp would’ve expected. And why would Roger choose to tell _him_?

“They’re not born yet, so I don’t even know if it’ll be a boy or a girl, but if you go to South Blue, to a tiny library called Baterilla, you’ll find the mother.”

“Why?” Garp asked again. Why trust him with this? Why go on this suicide mission if he had someone waiting for him to come back and a child to raise?

“I don’t regret what I did. But I know any child of mine will be feared just for the possibility of inheriting my powers. I know you, Garp. My crimes are mine, you won’t punish an innocent baby for what I did. And I know you know how to hide and raise a mutant child without anyone finding out. So do me a favour and take care of my kid for me, will ya?”

A shiver ran down Garp’s spine at the implication that Roger knew about Dragon, which absolutely _nobody_ was supposed to. But it wasn’t a threat. It wasn’t even pointing out Garp’s hypocrisy. Roger said it like it was a neutral fact, one that just happened to be helpful to him.

And in the end, Garp knew Roger was right. With everything he said.

“I promise.”

“Thank you.”

One last, weak breath, then Roger crumpled in Garp’s arms as the fires around the city all went out simultaneously.

Garp gently laid him down on the pavement, in the middle of the noble district he’d burned to the ground, only stopping short of the wall that separated the Celestial Dragons from the rest of the city because Garp had confronted him there.

He allowed himself a single tear for the man he’d once called his enemy, and then his friend, and then a weird mix of the two.

Roger was still smiling even in death.

* * *

_June 28 th, 795. Tsuru (52 years old)_

Immense relief like she’d never felt before flooded through Tsuru as the flames finally died down. It was over. Three days of hell, but in the end, she’d lived through it. She was one of the lucky ones.

What a mess. Even with the immediate danger gone, she wasn’t looking forward to all the clean-up work that would have to be done. People still had to be saved from the rubble, and then they’d have to rebuild large parts of the city. But maybe she could eventually go to bed for a little while, she hadn’t slept at all these past two nights.

What time was it, anyway? It had to be morning already, but the sun didn’t manage to shine through the thick smoke clouds at all. Perhaps she should go looking for her phone that she’d left behind yesterday so nobody would be able to track her movements or call her to give stupid orders.

As much as she believed in justice, sometimes the people running things were just idiots and needed to be ignored. Like when they’d told her to capture the phoenix that was helping them rescue as many citizens as was possible from the biggest catastrophe the city of Raftel had ever faced. Incredible. Nobody was better suited than the phoenix to save people. Fire didn’t seem to harm him, he could fly up any building no matter how high or unstable it was, and he even rose from buildings that crumpled on top of him on a few occasions. Tsuru would be stupid to attempt to stop him or even take over his work.

So she’d thrown her phone away, ordered her subordinates to follow and protect the phoenix, and taken care of all the people he brought to safety. She’d lost count after a few hundred, but that had still been toward the beginning. The actual number had to be much higher.

And when it finally seemed like most everyone was safe or dead and the fire moved ever closer to the center of the city, she’d gotten on her knees and begged him to follow her into the noble district, to save the people who were now trapped by the wall they themselves built to separate them from others.

Tsuru hadn’t really expected him to agree, she knew the phoenix was one of Whitebeard’s men, knew he was a mutant and not a mythical beast, so there was no way he didn’t see the nobles as his enemies.

But after just a moment of hesitation, he’d agreed.

“ _There are children there, too._ ”

His words still rang in her mind even now, as she grabbed a water bottle meant for the victims of this disaster and went looking for him.

She found him two streets down, sitting with his back to the wall of a burnt house, eyes closed and stretching out distinctly human arms and legs. As he made grabby motions with his hands, Tsuru wondered for the first time how it felt to transform yourself into a bird. It had to be weird, perhaps even uncomfortable after a while, to not have fingers.

Her gaze swept over to his chest that still proudly sported Whitebeard’s mark even when he wasn’t transformed, and then to his face. God, he looked so _young_. Tsuru remembered a meeting, a few years back, where someone had provided conclusive evidence that the phoenix was indeed growing at an alarming rate, and her mouth tasted of bile now that she knew her co-worker had essentially been afraid of a teen hitting a growth spurt.

“Thank you,” she alerted the young man to her presence, immediately making him jump up and turn back into a bird. With the fire gone, so was their temporary alliance, but Tsuru had no desire to fight right now.

She placed the water bottle on the ground, rolling it over to the phoenix, who stopped it with one of his talons, the question obvious in his eyes.

“We are in your debt for everything you did for us during these days of crisis. I know the government will do whatever they can to brush this fact under the rug, but the citizens won’t forget.” She bowed her head, something she’d never thought she’d do to a mutant, and certainly not right after so many people had died at the hand of one of them. “Thank you.”

Tsuru left without waiting for an answer, but she could hear the sound of a water bottle being opened as she walked away.

* * *

_June 30 th, 795. Edward Newgate (50 years old)_

They were staring at a pile of rubble, essentially, but after everything that happened, he couldn’t really ask for more. At the very least, it was a space.

And they would need the space, with how much their family had suddenly grown. Young Thatch was still clutching his hand tightly. Whitey was carrying a boy so young he couldn’t even really say how old he was. His name was Namur, and Whitey had taken him from a laboratory under a prison, and just from that information Whitebeard knew he wouldn’t enjoy learning more about Namur’s life so far.

But the same was probably true for all the children who now stood at his side, recently freed from what were sometimes years of being captured and collared.

Perhaps it was fitting, that they would start out with almost nothing. Roger had given everyone a chance for a fresh start, even if the price for it was incredibly high, higher than anyone could’ve ever anticipated.

The death toll in the news was still rising, and probably would keep doing so for the next few days. Whitebeard himself had seen very little of it, all things considered, as Roger had apparently been in control enough to leave all the facilities he knew about largely untouched even as the city around them burned to the ground.

Even though he hadn’t said anything upon his return, Whitebeard knew Marco hadn’t been so lucky. The haunted look on the face of his oldest son was deeply worrying, but if there was one thing Marco was good at, it was healing. Whitebeard would give him some time, and talk to him if Marco didn’t come forward on his own. Even if Marco was an adult by now, he’d always stay his adorable little son to him, and Whitebeard would make sure he’d never have to deal with anything this horrible on his own.

Whitebeard would be there for him, and for all of his other children, and all the ones he’d pick up in the future.

“Now then, my children,” Whitebeard spoke as the first rays of sunshine broke through the clouds of smoke that had kept the city in darkness over the last few days, “what kind of home should we build?”

“I think it should be fun,” Thatch said, though he was shyly trying to hide himself from his siblings as he did.

“Fun, huh?”, Whitey mused, “Then why don’t we make it a chicken? We can paint it bright blue and gold.”

Marco threw her a dirty look, while Vista put up his arms to stop the ensuing fight before it could begin. “ I don’t think a chicken, or any bird, is very house-shaped…”

“Then a fish,” Namur yelled, eyes sparkling, and Whitebeard figured they were stuck on animals now.

“Why don’t we make it a whale? We can call it Moby Dick.”

Whitebeard couldn’t help but smile, knowing Marco had suggested it for him.

“That’s always been my favourite book,” he told his children who didn’t know or remember.

And so it was decided.

* * *

_January 1 st, 797. Portgas D. Rouge (53 years old)_

The first cries of her new-born son were filling the air, and even as her entire body ached, she could only feel joy.

Yes, her pregnancy had been an absolute nightmare just as Crocus had warned her it might be, as the baby was trying to grow at normal speed, while her own body was trying to force him to go at her half-speed. It had been tearing her apart for over a year, but oh, it was so worth it.

Rouge got to see her son smile at her, already reminding her of his father, and that was worth all the pain in the world. Even her own life. She was bleeding out, she could tell, and tears threatened to spill at the thought that she wouldn’t get to see her boy grow up.

It was ironic, to think back now on how her other two boys had reacted when they first learned about her mutation.

_“What, you get to live twice as long as everyone else? That’s so unfair, you get to have twice as much fun!”_

_“Pfff, it just means she’ll have to watch everyone she loves die before her.”_

_“Why do you always have to be so unnecessarily negative?”_

_“Because you’re always so unnecessarily positive!”_

After everything that happened, she could only hope Shanks and Buggy were doing well. But they’d grown up into fine young men, she was sure they’d manage even without Roger there to protect them.

In the end, her mutation had only served her to get pitying looks from the nurse as she watched a woman in her mid-twenties die in childbirth with no father present. But it was better this way. Buggy had been right, just watching Roger die was enough for her.

“Welcome to this world, my dear,” she whispered to her son, “I’m sorry I won’t be able to stay with you, and that your father isn’t even here, but please know we love you. We love you so much. It’s truly a miracle we managed to have you despite everything.”

Rouge pressed a gentle kiss on the forehead of her son. “Ann if it’s a girl, Ace if it’s a boy, those were the names your father chose for you. I hope you wear your name with pride, little Ace. I don’t know what kind of person you’ll grow up to be, but make sure to live a strong life, and don’t forget to smile even when times get rough.”

Tears were now freely flowing down her cheeks.

“Whatever happens, don’t forget you were born loved, and you’ll find more people who love you as you live, my dear Ace.”

Rouge closed her eyes, holding Ace close to her as she felt her consciousness slipping away.

On the windowsill next to her bed, the marble Roger had gifted her a lifetime ago shone in its usual deep red, almost glowing in the sunshine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been sitting on all this backstory from the start, just waiting to write it, so definitely tell me what you think in the comments!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marco completes his mission and comes home. Everything is fine.  
> ...Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to the usual chapter length again! Enjoy Marco being gay and distracted by it a bunch lmao
> 
> Added the slow burn tag because this got longer than anticipated and they haven't really gotten anywhere yet whoops~

Marco quietly cursed the patrols on the street below him. He was already two days over his planned stay. Moving around in the noble district was such a pain in the ass when you weren’t supposed to cause a ruckus or get noticed.

Even though he was dressed in the clothes of a servant and not a noble, they were still too tight and constricting for his liking. Especially the dress shoes. Marco kept curling and uncurling his toes, trying to stop himself from turning them into talons and just ripping the shoes apart. He wasn’t exactly sure what made closed shoes so uncomfortable, if it was just a pet peeve of his or some kind of bird instinct that told him he couldn’t properly use his talons like this, but it didn’t matter that often. Since his fire was warm enough to keep him at a perfect temperature regardless of the weather, he’d taken to just wearing sandals year round.

But of course, no proper servant of a noble would ever be caught dead in such casual footwear while on the job, and Marco couldn’t afford any suspicion from regular citizens. It was bad enough all the guards were trained to recognize his face, avoiding them was already close to impossible, but being seen by absolutely nobody was ridiculous. There were too many people everywhere. He’d have to be invisible. If only the only invisible mutant he knew wasn’t such a terrible creep, they could’ve asked him for help, but realistically that was an even worse idea than Marco going, especially since he was looking for a teenage girl.

At least he was finally, finally close to her house, the last safe spot he needed before having a somewhat safe route to her parents’ estate. He just had to sit around for hours until there was a gap in the patrols one last time, and that was nearing its end, too. If he could make this last trip without getting caught and her parents really were away for the week, he would be able to meet her and have time to talk to her.

He could only hope she wouldn’t be scared of him and wanted to leave, everything else would make things unnecessarily complicated, but you never knew with noble kids.

Now if only time would pass faster. Marco wanted to get back home. He hated not knowing how his family was doing. Was the hospital overflowing with patients? Had one of his siblings got hurt in a fight? Was Pops drinking alcohol more than usual now that Marco wasn’t around to nag him about it?

Most importantly, how was Ace doing? Marco had left him really at the worst time. Hopefully he was doing okay. Maybe he could even use the time on his own to calm down and figure out some sort of solution that would let him control his fire.

Marco had definitely used all his time waiting for guard patrols to pass to properly think about his feelings.

Admitting he found Ace attractive had been the easiest part. No point denying what he’d seen on day one. The guy had very nice abs. And those freckles… adorable.

But that also wasn’t really the point. Marco found other people attractive too. But he wasn’t drawn to them the way he was drawn to Ace. He wouldn’t spontaneously ask any of them to hold hands. Their smile wouldn’t make his heart beat faster and his entire existence feel at peace. He _definitely_ wouldn’t miss one of very few chances to slip through the noble district unnoticed because he was too busy thinking about anyone else.

He’d have to leave out that detail in his report to Pops once he was back home. Nobody needed to know that, ever.

Marco wasn’t a fan of lying to himself. He definitely had a crush.

Once he’d put it into words in his mind, it wasn’t that hard to accept. Ace was a wonderful, cute, loving, handsome, funny, pretty, protective, beautiful, incredible person. Just watching him or thinking about him made Marco happy. Why would he fight these feelings?

Still, deciding on whether or not to act on them was much harder. On one hand, it would be incredible if he could actually date Ace. He wanted to make Ace blush again like at the aquarium and hold his hand, and then move in and kiss his freckles. With the way Ace had reacted that day, Marco couldn’t help but hope his feelings were reciprocated.

But on the other hand, Ace clearly had a lot of other stuff bothering him right now. And Marco was one of the few people Ace trusted enough to open up to when it came to that, even if he’d admitted to still leaving a few things out. If Ace didn’t feel the same but Marco confessed, things would probably get awkward at least, and Ace would have an extra hurdle when talking to him. And that was if he didn’t feel pressured to say yes, fearing he wouldn’t be welcome with the Whitebeards anymore if he said no.

Maybe now just wasn’t the right time. Marco was a patient man, he could wait.

The only thing he wouldn’t be able to bare much longer were these damn shoes. Good thing it was time to leave the empty apartment Marco was camping out in as soon as the current patrol was a few seconds out of his view. It was shift-switch, giving him a few minutes of wriggle room to get where he needed to be.

Marco did his very best to look like a regular servant on a grocery errand as he walked through the streets of the noble district. Even though he’d never been exactly in this part of it before, he’d memorized his path so he wouldn’t look lost.

Soon, the estate he was looking for came into view, and Marco casually walked around to the back, where the fence had a small entrance for servants that wasn’t locked or guarded. He’d call it careless, but general security in the area was insane, and most nobles were richer than these one anyway, so in their minds, there probably was little to guard.

Perhaps they’d change their minds on that after tonight.

Most of the estate was dark, the sun having set like half an hour ago, and most servants were either away with the parents or enjoying some vacation time, but one room still had the lights on and a window open.

Perfect. At least one thing that went right.

Now he just had to hope nobody would see him for this last part, or that they would let it slide since it was him. Looking around and listening for passers-by, Marco decided the coast was as clear as it would get. He transformed into his full phoenix form, elated that he could finally spread his wings after five days, and catapulted himself straight upwards and through the open window on the second floor.

The girl fell out of her chair the moment she saw him. Shit, she looked ready to scream.

Marco quickly lifted one of his wings to his beak, trying to emulate the gesture for ‘quiet’ as well as he could as a bird. “Shhh,” he whispered, and the girl actually clasped both of her hands over her mouth, nodding wildly to indicate she understood. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I would have knocked, but your window opens to the inside… You’re Camie, right?”

Camie nodded again, eventually moving her hands away from her mouth and gasping for air loudly. She quickly jumped up from the ground, slamming a book on her desk shut, then positioning herself back on the ground, but kneeling properly this time. “Yes, I’m Camie, Mr. Phoenix, sir. Are you here to whisk me away? Can you just tell what I am?”

That… hadn’t been exactly the reaction Marco had been expecting, but he guessed it could be worse. “I have my way of knowing things,” he answered cryptically, not wanting to give away the identity of his informant, “and whether you want to come with me or not is your choice.” He hopped across the ground a little to be closer to her. “But you will likely be in danger if you choose to stay here.”

“I wanna come with you! I’m the family disappointment anyway! You see, I wanna be a fashion designer, but my parents say sewing is a job for commoners. But if I go live with commoners, nobody will care! Oh, but I can’t fight at all, is that okay? Do I have to fight? My mutation only makes me more useless! Is it okay if I’m just a fashion designer? I can patch clothes, too! Ohhh, was that impolite? I didn’t mean to make it sound like you’re so poor you need your clothes mended! I must apologize, Mr. Phoenix! Please forgive me!”

It seemed like Camie was the kind of girl who just spoke out loud whatever came to her mind, and even with Marco’s limited understanding of noble culture, he could see how that would make her the family disappointment. “It’s fine. You can just call me Marco, I should’ve introduced myself earlier. Sewing and patching clothes is a very valuable skill, and there is no shame in doing so, whether you’re poor or not. And no, you don’t have to fight if you don’t want to. Can I ask what your mutation is?”

“Sure!” Camie jumped up, then let herself fall backwards on her desk chair and threw her legs up so her long skirt didn’t hide her legs anymore. Marco was about to turn away, he didn’t want to look under the skirt of a 13-year-old, that would be creepy, but before he could, Camie slammed her legs together and they transformed into what looked like a mermaid tail.

“I can breathe underwater, too,” she informed Marco while he mentally agreed that this wouldn’t be helpful at all outside of any large bodies of water, which were pretty rare in the city. “And I can control if I transform on land, but in the water it just happens on reflex.” She turned her fin back into legs. Marco knew that put her at risk if she stayed, certainly not every day, but someone could walk in on a bath, or she could be pressured into going to a swimming pool.

“You’re not the only one with fish characteristics, I’m sure you’ll fit right in.” Namur would probably be a good fit to take care of her.

Marco helped Camie pack some of her stuff, and encouraged her to take some money from her parents as well, so she had the funds to buy back what she couldn’t take. He waited patiently while she decided which clothes she needed to keep the most, and then as she insisted on writing a letter to her parents, letting them know what happened to her. It wasn’t exactly advisable, her parents could report her to the marines as a fugitive instead of reporting her as missing to the police, but she insisted, and Marco didn’t argue. It wasn’t his place. He knew it wasn’t exactly easy to accept your parents probably wanted you dead, and she’d had hers almost twice as long as Marco had his.

In the end, with a backpack and a shoulder bag that made her a little heavier than Marco would’ve liked, she climbed onto his back. At least she wasn’t crying. All things considered, she was taking it like a champ, even considering her freak-out at the start.

Marco gave her one last opportunity to look back at her childhood bedroom, then he jumped out of the window and flapped his wings as hard as he could, lifting both of them high up in the air.

Finally he was on his way home.

* * *

It was past 11pm when they broke through the bubble protecting the Whitebeard estate. Marco did his best to touch down gently, even though he was getting a little tired from carrying someone for a while.

It was immediately forgotten when the front door of the Moby opened, and Ace jogged toward them. His heart was soaring, telling him Ace had worriedly waited for him to come back, just looking at the sky in hopes of seeing him return. Though his brain knew it was probably a coincidence.

Shifting back into his human form, he got ready to greet Ace, but a shriek in his ear stopped him before he could say or do anything. “Oh god you’re actually a guy!” Camie threw her hands up as she screamed in surprise, and as a result, fell over backwards off Marco’s back, landing on the ground with a thud.

Oops. Well, looked like he had to make Ace wait for a bit. “Ah, sorry, are you okay? I figured you were aware I was a mutant.”

“No, I’m sorry, Mr. Marco Phoenix, sir, I overreacted, I’m fine, really, no problem.” She was trying to get up, but stumbled over her own feet, and Marco quickly stepped in to make sure she didn’t immediately fall over again.

“Are you sure you didn’t hit your head? I think it’s better if we let you sleep in the infirmary tonight, then you can call someone immediately if you start feeling dizzy or nauseous. And if everything really is fine, you can meet Pops and everyone tomorrow morning fresh and rested.” He turned to Ace. “Sorry, Ace, but you can come too if you want. Since you waited up for me and everything~”

“I wasn’t waiting for you! I was just trying to see if I could see the stars tonight! You were in the way, if anything! Too bright.”

What a shitty excuse. You could never see the stars in the city, Ace had to know that. It was cloudy, too. You could barely even see the moon. So he _had_ been waiting for Marco to return. His stomach was doing funny things at the information, but he couldn’t let himself be distracted just yet. He had to get Camie to the infirmary first, and reassure her she wasn’t causing him trouble, and there really was no need to keep apologizing for being such a klutz the entire walk there.

Ace was finally able to distract her with introductions when they reached the place and Marco had a quick talk with Meg, who assured him nothing too terrible had happened while he was away, though she also looked like she really needed to go to sleep.

Finally, they got things settled for the night, but Marco was already planning to get up early tomorrow to get caught up on everything. The only thing he still wanted to do tonight was actually talk to Ace, at least a little bit. Said guy greeted him with a smile when he made it back into the hallway in front of Camie’s room.

“So, what took you so long, Mr. Marco Phoenix, sir?” It was obviously meant to annoy Marco, so he shoved Ace in response.

“Shut up, she came up with that on her own.” Still, there had been worry in Ace’ voice. The original plan had been three days, after all, not five. “I just ended up being extra careful. Ended up waiting around longer rather than risking it if the patrols weren’t exactly on time. Nobody noticed me at all until I was already up in the air with Camie.”

“Good.” If he paid close attention – which he did – Marco could see Ace’s shoulders relaxing.

Maybe he should’ve hurried some more, after all. “And what about you? What were you up to while I was bored out of my mind waiting for a chance to slip through the noble district unnoticed?”

Bad question. Ace tensed right back up, and this time it was super obvious. “Not much. Helped out Thatch and Fossa or took care of the kids. Got tricked into cleaning the newspaper archive by Haruta.”

How did you get tricked into cleaning something…? Well, Marco wouldn’t put it past Haruta to find a way, that sounded exactly like something he’d do. But why was Ace so tense? Did he not want to admit he hadn’t made any progress with his fire? Marco wouldn’t bring that up, for now. “Did you read some of the old newspapers while you were at it? Should be some fun stuff in there.”

The question didn’t help at all. “Yeah, I found a picture of Thatch as a teenager. I don’t think he wants to talk to me about that outfit.” Marco snorted. Early Thatch had been a treasure, especially for Marco, who’d left his teenage years behind at that point, out of whatever embarrassing phases he’d had during that time. “Found out why you’re so popular, too.”

Ah. Memories of a fire much less pleasant than Ace’s immediately tried to push their way into his brain, but he forced them out with practiced ease. It was long in the past. Among so many others, Roger hadn’t survived that, so there was no reason to worry about it anymore.

“I see. Sorry, I should’ve told you when you asked, but I don’t exactly like talking about that. You saw the death toll.” Hundreds of thousands, despite Marco’s best efforts. Very little, considering the city’s total population, but still an absolutely incomprehensible statistic. Not one he truly wanted to understand.

“No, I get it. I wasn’t alive, so I can’t really imagine it, but it had to be hell.”

“Yeah, that’s a fitting word, I’d say.” Somehow, Ace still looked as upset as if he’d actually lived through it, and it finally occurred to Marco that this was incredibly counterproductive to helping Ace accept his fire. Shit. The press, the government and the other emperors were all obviously making Ace out to be the next Roger, the last thing Ace needed right now was to think like them.

Marco quickly ruffled Ace’ hair, trying to dispel the tension. “You really don’t have to worry about that, alright? Regardless of what people say, your fire has nothing to do with Roger, and everyone here knows that.”

Their mutations weren’t even the same. Yeah, they were both fire elementals, but Ace was a logia, unlike Roger. Marco didn’t think those classification words would mean anything to Ace, and perhaps it wouldn’t help all that much if he did understand the difference. It really only served to make Ace practically invulnerable on top of the powers that Roger had. Though of course they had no way of knowing if Ace could produce quite as much fire for such a long time period, but that was something they never needed to test.

Ace nodded. “Right. Nothing at all.” He smiled, but Marco couldn’t shake the feeling that Ace wasn’t entirely convinced.

As much as Marco didn’t want to, perhaps they would have to talk about this tomorrow. Not that it was a pleasant topic, but it was pretty complicated, not something you could really understand and convey in ten minutes late at night. It was horrible, but there were reasons for it, and some good had come from it. Getting context and explanations along with first-hand accounts of Roger when he wasn’t burning down the city might help Ace if he was really worried about this as much as it looked like.

If Ace wanted him to, Marco would dig up those memories and talk with him. Tomorrow, after they slept. After five days of being constantly on edge, he sorely needed at least a little time to relax.

* * *

Still, he only slept a few hours, getting up at 4am and spending the calm morning hours catching up on medical reports as rain poured down outside. Thankfully nothing had gone horribly wrong during his absence just as Meg had told him, but he still needed to be up to date with the progress of all his patients. And Doma had gotten himself shot, which wasn’t life-threatening, but now they had to deal with his monkey in the hospital, because of course it refused to leave Doma’s side. As if they didn’t have any other problems.

Marco got his breakfast before everyone else, stealing it from the kitchen and catching up with Thatch while he was at it. Thatch wasn’t happy that Marco took the food before it was properly arranged and ready, but happy enough to see Marco back safe and sound that he let it slide. He told Marco that Ace had been going around asking people about their mutation and how they saw it, which Marco counted as a positive, Ace was clearly trying and willing to ask them for help.

But Thatch also said that especially from the day after Marco left, Ace had seemed a little different. Down, and jumpy, trying to isolate himself whenever possible.

Of course, there could be a myriad of reasons for that, but Marco couldn’t help but worry. Even as Thatch winked at him and speculated (read: said with a teasing lilt but utmost confidence that he was 100% correct) that it was because Ace had missed Marco and worried about him.

It certainly was tempting to believe in that explanation, especially with the things it did to Marco’s heart. Not that he would tell Thatch that. All he got was an eyeroll. No need to feed any rumours, or his brother’s ever growing desire to meddle.

Marco knew Thatch meant well when trying to get him hooked up, but if he wanted help, he’d ask for it. Right now, he was pretty sure Thatch’s attempts at being a wingman would be the opposite of helpful.

* * *

Naomi had promised to text him once Camie woke up, but there was still nothing on that front, so Marco went to Pops next, reporting to him how the mission had gone. Pops picked him up for a hug the moment he was in reach, but Marco didn’t mind. He tried to keep up a cool and professional front for his younger siblings most of the time these days, but none of them were here.

As long as it was just him and Pops, Marco didn’t mind giving his report while sitting on Pops’ lap, gently cradled in one of his big arms. Who cared how old he was, he loved his father the same as he had as a child, and Pops’ hugs were still just as great as they always had been. No point pretending he didn’t love them. Pops would see right through him anyway.

The obligatory check-up went well, too. Marco could feel his thoughts drift as he went through the familiar motions to make sure Pops’ health wasn’t getting any worse. Stupid Thatch and his stupid suggestions. Now Marco couldn’t help but hope.

What if he did tease Ace a little today for having missed him? Would he blush and deny it? Admit it but add an insult to make himself less vulnerable? Whatever his reaction, it was sure to be adorable.

Like everything about Ace. Especially his smile. Marco knew he’d been planning to talk about serious things with Ace today, but there was always the temptation to procrastinate that and focus on trying to make him smile instead. With all of his idiotic siblings, Marco had an endless array of funny stories to tell. One of them had to be good enough to make Ace grin or maybe even laugh. Chase away that sad look he’d been wearing yesterday.

Regardless, Marco was definitely looking forward to enjoying Ace’ company after five days of absolutely nothing.

“What’s got you so distracted, son?”

Marco blinked up at his Pops. “I’m not distracted.”

“Nonsense. I’ve been drinking sake this whole time you’ve been doing the check-up, and you haven’t even noticed.”

“You know you’re not supposed to do that! If something happens, we won’t be able to medicate you because the alcohol would react badly with it! What were you thinking!” Marco huffed in annoyance, knowing full well Pops had only brought it up after he’d emptied his cup, so it was too late to stop him now.

Of course, he didn’t take it seriously. “I’ll be fine. I honestly didn’t think I’d get this far, but I had to take my chance. Now tell me, what’s got you smiling to yourself?”

“Can’t I just be happy to be back home?” It was a flimsy excuse, Marco knew that, if he’d been so happy to be home, he’d have paid more attention to Pops.

“You can, of course, but I don’t think that’s all there is to it. Call it a father’s intuition.”

Marco sighed. “It’s silly, I’ll feel stupid talking about it. And it’s something nice, so it’s not like I need help or anything.”

Sadly, it didn’t look like Pops was about to leave it be. “Can’t I want to know what makes my son ha-“

“POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS!”

The door slammed open, startling both men. Chimney came rushing inside, obvious distress on her face. “Pops, Ace is gone!”

…What?

“What do you mean by ‘he’s gone’?” Pops sounded worried, too.

“He took all his stuff and left! Haruta said he went out the bubble with a backpack, so we went to his room and everything was gone, and he didn’t even leave a letter to say where he’s going! And he’s been super sad, Aisa said so, but when we tried to cheer him up he only got more sad! Nothing we did helped! Even when he smiled Aisa said it was a lie. Pops, what should we do?”

Panic spread through Marco’s chest. Why had Ace suddenly gone and left? He hadn’t said anything about leaving in a while, certainly not about leaving so soon. Had Marco upset him somehow yesterday? Was it his fault? Dammit, he’d noticed yesterday that Ace wasn’t alright, he should’ve talked to him immediately instead of putting it off!

A hand ruffling through his hair pulled him out of his thoughts. Pops was still smiling calmly, reassuring both his children with headpats, but Marco didn’t have time to be upset that he was treated the same as a literal six-year-old. “It’s alright. We’ll find him again. Go make sure you’re properly dressed for the rain outside, gather everyone who wants to help, and then go looking for him. I’m sure he hasn’t gone very far yet.”

“Leave it to me! I’ll get everyone together and find him, you can rely on me,” Chimney announced, immediately cheery again.

“That’s very reassuring. I trust you’ll keep your promise.” Chimney grinned at Pops’ words, running back out of the room as quickly as she’d come.

“Is this okay?” Marco bit the inside of his cheek. He wanted to go look for Ace, too, of course he did, but… “We promised he could leave whenever he wants.”

“I’m not telling you to drag him back by force. I doubt you’ll even find him if he doesn’t want you to. But I don’t think he truly wants to leave. He would’ve told us if he did.”

Marco wasn’t so sure about that. There were still times where it seemed like Ace was intimidated, especially by Pops. Still, he didn’t feel like arguing. He certainly didn’t want to just give up on Ace with no explanation why he had to.

So he went to get himself an umbrella, helped quite a few kids put on rainboots and coats, told Izou he didn’t have to come if getting his kimono wet would upset him, only to get told off by Izou that Ace was obviously more important despite Izou having complained first. As Haruta was dividing everyone into search groups, always one adult with two or three kids, and Vista jokingly asked if Thatch’s pompadour could survive in the pouring rain, the tension in Marco’s body eased a little. This was the same as usual.

Maybe he really was worrying too much, nobody else was panicking. Trusting Pops usually turned out to be the right choice.

Or maybe it was just hard to stay seriously upset when you were following little girls in raincoats fashioned to look like a frog and a duck happily jumping into every puddle they found.

Still, Marco couldn’t just stop worrying. There had to be a reason why Ace left. If he didn’t actually want to leave like Pops had said, why did he do just that? It didn’t make any sense.

Hopefully he wasn’t planning anything stupid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> make sure to leave a kudo or a comment, I thrive off your reactions~


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's no way Ace could properly prepare for this rollercoaster of emotions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't make you wait too long after that cliffhanger last chapter, so here's the next one already! enjoy! ^-^

Ace watched the rain hit the river below him, slumped against the railing of the small bridge. His hat kept his face and hair somewhat dry, but the rest of him was soaked.

What the hell was he doing?

His fire was still way too dangerous to be leaving the Whitebeards and going to live on his own, and he didn’t really have anywhere else to go in the first place. No apartment, no job, barely any money. He didn’t want to go bother Luffy, either. If he stayed in South Blue, the Whitebeards would easily find him again, but it wasn’t like he was better off in any other Blue. He’d slip up with his fire, either the marines or another emperor would find him, and more and more info about him would circulate until he couldn’t escape anymore.

Logically, he should’ve stayed, but he just couldn’t. It hurt too much. Ever since he’d read those old newspapers, he hadn’t been able to breathe properly on the estate.

They were convinced his fire powers were entirely unrelated to Roger’s, that was the only reason they were so nice to him. If they found out, it would change in an instant. They’d realize he was too dangerous to keep around, too monstrous to be a part of their perfect family.

Ace hadn’t ever belonged anywhere except in a grave next to his piece of shit father.

He didn’t need to be there to see their faces when they realized that. Didn’t need to see the disgust in Whitebeard’s face when he recognized the features of his old enemy in Ace’ face. Didn’t need to see the fear from Deuce and all the kids, who were too young to have seen anything but still knew Roger was the worst catastrophe to have ever happened to the city. Certainly didn’t need to see Marco’s expression change from gentle and caring to that haunted emptiness when he looked at Ace.

Ace had promised himself to never run away, and yet here he was, definitely running.

Not that he was doing a great job at that, but still. He’d turned his phone off to not be tracked, and he’d taken a few turns here and there, but considering everything, he was still way too close to the estate. Someone could absolutely still find him if they tried.

He should keep moving, or find a spot to hide until the rain stopped, but he felt too lethargic to move, choosing instead to just watch the river water flow by.

All rivers eventually flowed into the sea, right? Maybe Ace should just follow the river for however long that took. He’d never seen the sea before. Maybe if he snuck onto a ship and travelled somewhere else in the world than this city that would solve his problem. The city _felt_ endless, _felt_ like it was the entire world, but it wasn’t. There were other places. Places Roger hadn’t touched. Places where you could see the stars.

Maybe Ace could find happiness there, if he left behind everything and everyone he knew.

It would definitely be running away though. And he’d be out of reach if Luffy got in trouble, which he surely would eventually. He still didn’t know where Sabo was, either. No way he could leave.

Ace had shackled himself to this city that had despised him since birth, and now it was too late. If anything, he was only shackling himself further with every day he spent with Whitebeard and his family.

Fuck, he wanted to go back.

Wanted to spend his time hanging out with Deuce while sneaking glances at Marco working, even if Deuce would definitely tease him for only having eyes for the doctor. And it was Ace’ turn to babysit in the afternoon. He’d promised Chimney to play in the rain with her, since he didn’t get cold or sick. She’d be so disappointed if she had to stay inside.

His stomach grumbled, telling him he shouldn’t have skipped breakfast to go through with this. He could get food somewhere else, but it wouldn’t be made by Thatch. It wouldn’t be accompanied by the chaos he’d accidentally gotten used to, either. Nobody would scold him for his manners, or try to get him to bet on whatever stupid competition others got up to.

He’d never been unhappy while eating before, but now he was pretty sure he’d just feel lonely. He didn’t want to get used to eating alone, but he’d have to.

Still, his feet wouldn’t move, too torn between getting away and going back. It wasn’t like Ace to be so unsure what to do, and he hated how weak it made him feel.

No wonder he wasn’t getting anywhere, physically or metaphorically. He couldn’t even make decisions anymore.

Everything was just going downhill, even Ace himself, and he could blame it all on Roger and his stupid fire. Incredible how much trouble a dead man could cause. If he could, Ace would revive him, just to list all of the problems he’d caused for Ace, then murder him again.

An empty soda bottle passed the bridge in the river, and Ace watched it bob up and down with the current. Would it reach the sea? Or did someone actually try to filter out all the trash everyone threw in the river before it reached the ocean?

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEEEEEEEE!”

The high-pitched scream startled him out of his fruitless, circling thoughts. Ace turned around to face the street, quickly locating the source of the scream in a little girl wearing a frog raincoat running toward him faster than any child this young had any right to be.

Chimney practically launched herself at Ace, hugging his waist with all her might. “You’re so unfair,” she complained immediately, “you gotta take me with you if you’re running away! I wanna have fun adventures, too!”

“I,” Ace started, unsure of how to explain the situation to her, “I wasn’t having any fun adventures.”

“That’s because you went all on your own! It would have been fun if you took me! Look, we found some worms on the way here!” She reached into the pocket of her raincoat to pull out a handful of wriggling worms.

“That’s cool,” Ace answered automatically. Wait, ‘we’?

Looking up from the little girl still clinging to him, Ace saw Marco and Aisa walk toward them at a much more measured pace, both of them smiling.

Shit. Now he would definitely need an explanation. What the hell was he going to tell them? He didn’t even understand his actions himself, how the hell was he supposed to make anyone else understand him?

“Sorry about her,” Marco said instead of a greeting.

“What are you doing here,” Ace asked, not even acknowledging that. He didn’t care that Chimney was clinging to him, but he couldn’t figure out why the hell they were outside in this pouring rain. Sure, they were dressed for it, unlike Ace himself, but this wasn’t exactly the weather for a walk. The kids should have school, too, it wasn’t like Marco to support them skipping class.

“Looking for you, of course,” Aisa answered, as if it was obvious, and really, it kind of was. What _else_ would they be doing? A strange warmth spread in Ace’ chest at the thought that they went out in this weather just for him, neglecting everything else.

“Yeah, we gotta bring you back home!” Chimney grinned up at him.

“Only if you want to, of course,” Marco quickly added. “Pops explicitly told us no dragging you back against your will.” Right. He wasn’t a prisoner. They just… wanted him back?

“Huh? Why wouldn’t he wanna come back home?” Chimney looked between Ace and Marco, clearly confused. “You want to come back with us, right?”

And wasn’t that the million beri question Ace had been asking himself this entire time? He sighed. “I… don’t know. I’m sorry, I know that’s a really stupid answer and now we’re all standing in the rain and not just me…”

“It’s okay, we can wait. Just let us know if we can help you decide somehow.” Marco moved closer, holding his umbrella over both of them now, clearly settling in to wait a while. What the hell, how could he be so kind and accepting and patient when he had no idea what was going on? That was so unfair, it only made Ace want to go back more.

Chimney, however, apparently couldn’t wait more than 30 seconds. “Hey, Ace, have you decided yet? Did we do something wrong? Are you mad at us? Don’t you like us anymore?”

Ugh, when had he become this weak to her puppy dog eyes? Nobody but Luffy was supposed to make him feel like this. “No, Chimney, I’m not mad at you and you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just… complicated.”

Aisa patted her friend on the back. “It’s okay, Chimney, Ace is confused, but Pops was super confident that he’ll come back, so we just have to wait for him to make the decision. You know Pops is never wrong when it comes to his kids.”

Whitebeard really believed Ace didn’t want to leave? If Aisa said so, it had to be the truth, since she could hear people’s inner voices, so even Whitebeard couldn’t lie to her or put up a front for her.

But Ace wasn’t one of his kids, now was he? Whitebeard could be wrong about him.

“Why do you call him Pops, anyway?” The question was a mere murmur, more meant to stall for time than anything. Ace sort of got it, though he felt his lack of any sort of father that wasn’t just a phantom haunting him impeded his ability to truly understand, and no explanation could just change that.

“That’s just his name,” Chimney answered without missing a single beat. No hint of being unsure in her voice.

Next to him, Ace could hear Marco snort, and Aisa hit Chimney’s arm, before correcting her with the same amount of confidence. “Don’t be stupid, his name is Whitebeard!”

At this point, Marco was clearly trying to hold back his laughter. “Actually, his name is Edward Newgate. But nobody except some very old friends call him that these days, so it’s okay to be confused.” With a smile still on his face, he turned to Ace. “We call him Pops because he calls us his children.”

“That’s it?” It made sense, on some basic level, of course, but it really seemed too simple of an explanation to be all there was to it. It just felt… too profound for that.

“In essence. It’s just words, of course, but they make us happy. This city… This world sees us as monsters. They call us animals, or mistakes of nature, aberrations against god. They hate and fear us for something we never chose to be. When everyone wishes you’d never been born, someone accepting you exactly as you are means the world. Pops loves us, and he supports us, and he’s proud of us, and for all of us who were made to believe we don’t deserve any of that, there’s nothing that could make us happier.”

Marco’s voice was full of honesty, full of love and devotion and the knowledge that he was loved in return just as fiercely, and Ace could feel himself tear up. Fuck, it was so unfair. “I want that too,” he choked out, unable to hide his emotions as the tears started to flow for real. “I want a family. I wanna go home with all of you! I want to, I want to so bad, believe me, but,” _I’m Roger’s son and you’ll hate me for it_ , he couldn’t say, “I just don’t think you’d want me if you knew, if you knew that I-“ Dammit, why couldn’t he say it? Now was the time, he could say it and be accepted or crushed in the most brutal way, but his tongue was tied, he just _couldn’t_ do it.

Aisa attached herself to Ace as well, and then Marco gently pulled him into a hug, leaving Chimney awkwardly trapped between them. Ace let himself sag against Marco’s chest. “I’m sorry, I want to tell you, you have to think I’m crazy or something, I just- I’m sorry.”

“Nonsense.” Marco gently rubbed circles on his back. “You want to come home with us. I’m happy just to hear that, I don’t need anything more.”

How could he just say things like that? How could he say them _like that_ , with so much love in his voice? If he kept doing that, how on earth was Ace supposed to keep convincing himself that he wasn’t loved? All of his carefully built walls were crumbling down as sobs wrecked his body.

“Why don’t we just go home for now?” Marco suggested. “Whatever it is that you can’t tell us, you can tell Pops when you’re ready. We all trust his judgement unconditionally, so you never have to tell anyone but him.”

But could he? Could he tell Whitebeard of all people? Marco had said to do it when Ace was ready, but would he ever be? Could he bear to live with them any longer without being sure?

“Oh, there you are.” That was Izou’s voice. He had two kids with him, decked out in cute raincoats, just like Marco, so he had to have been out to look for Ace, too.

The kids ran towards Ace, and Rika yelled “Group hug!” before throwing herself against Marco and him.

“Your kimono is looking pretty dry, considering the weather, that’s impressive,” Marco commented, “and how did you find us?”

“Oh, pure skill for the kimono. But we found you because Haruta sent everyone the location of your phone after you texted us that you found Ace. I think a few people who went in the opposite direction just went straight home after that, but we were kinda close, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make the detour.”

A pair of hands suddenly grabbed Ace’ shoulders and he startled horribly, turning around in shock to see… Thatch? Yeah, it was definitely him, but his trademark pompadour was entirely ruined, and all of him was soaking wet. “You better have a good explanation for this,” he stated, voice dry, and Ace stiffened.

“I, uh…” He didn’t really have one, did he? He was just causing everyone trouble with his own stupid issues that he couldn’t even tell them about.

“Don’t worry, Ace, Thatch sporting that wonderful look is enough to make this trip worth it.” Ace could hear the snap of a phone camera behind him. “What happened to your umbrella anyway?”

“Delete that immediately. It’s not my fault my umbrella turned into a sword.”

…A sword?

“Never. I’m sending it to Haruta immediately.”

“I’ll throw you into the river, you stupid pineapple head!”

“I can fly, moron, if anyone is gonna land in the river it’ll be you.”

“Surprise attack!” Carrot – no, Ace realized, it was Pepper in a raincoat that looked like a carrot – tried to poke Thatch with an umbrella that was definitely still an umbrella and not a sword, though since it was closed it was equally useless against the rain. Thatch managed to dodge in the last second, grabbing the umbrella to stop Pepper from trying again.

“It’s not a surprise attack the seventh time!”

“Boo, don’t be so boring.”

Marco detached himself from the group, and Ace turned around to see him open his messages to send the picture as he’d said. But Izou quickly took his place, sharing his own umbrella with Ace. There wasn’t really anything that would change Ace being wet at this point, but it was appreciated anyway.

Meanwhile Thatch realized what was happening and sprinted after Marco, yelling at him to stop, Pepper right after him, pretend sword already raised again for another surprise attack.

“You can ignore them.” Izou shook his head at their childish antics.

“I don’t mind.” Ace couldn’t help but smile as he watched Marco triumphantly declare that the picture had been sent, only to get his umbrella snatched away as well by carrot – wearing an onion raincoat, of course – so a swordfight between the two boys could ensue.

Izou was smiling, too. “Let’s just go home. Idiots may not catch colds, but people like me are still at risk.”

“I heard that,” Marco and Thatch yelled simultaneously, and even though his face was still wet with tears, Ace couldn’t help but laugh.

He placed a hand on both Chimney’s and Aisa’s head. “Right. Let’s go home.” Even if he was still unsure, it felt like the right decision.

* * *

By the time the group arrived back at the estate, only Izou was miraculously still something similar to dry. Marco put on his serious doctor voice and told everyone to go to their rooms to dry off and change into fresh clothes.

Ace had never had a cold in his life, but he followed the instruction anyway. His emotions were all over the place, and he appreciated having a moment to himself.

As he was drying his hair with his towel, a weird calm was settling over him.

There was no point in waiting. If he couldn’t have this family, he needed to know now. The longer he waited, the more his heart would shatter.

No more running away.

As soon as he was in dry clothes, Ace slipped out of his room, going straight to Whitebeard. Thankfully nobody else was with him right now.

The warm smile he greeted Ace with almost made Ace rethink his decision. Could he really risk this…?

He had to; he knew that.

“I’m glad to see you’re back. I’d tell you to wear something warmer, so you don’t catch a cold, but I guess that’s not necessary.”

“I’m fine. Sorry for causing so much trouble.”

Whitebeard chuckled. “You don’t need to apologize. There’s nothing wrong with leaving sometimes just to see if someone will follow you.”

“That’s not what I was doing,” Ace protested immediately.

…Or had that been what he was doing? Had he secretly hoped everyone would come to get him back? Was that why he hadn’t been able to go further or hide? It would make sense. If there was one thing he learned from this whole ordeal, it was that they really did care about him.

Whitebeard simply hummed, clearly not believing him.

“Well, I came back, but I have to tell you something important before I can say if I’ll stay or not.”

There. Now he’d locked himself in. No turning back anymore.

“I see. What would that be?” There was genuine curiosity in Whitebeard’s voice, but he kept his tone light. But then, he also had no idea what Ace would tell him.

Ace took a deep breath. Looked up at Whitebeard, and then down to the ground, not ready to see his reaction. “I…” Damn, this was hard. He should’ve thought beforehand how to phrase it so he wouldn’t be stuck on it. But he wouldn’t stop now. No running away.

The only way was forward, as always. “I’m Gol D. Roger’s son.”

There. He’d said it. Straight to the point. For the first time in years, he’d actually uttered these words out loud rather than just repeating them to himself endlessly.

Silence followed for a few seconds. Panic crept up in Ace’s chest at the lack of a reaction, but he couldn’t bring himself to look up either.

“And?”

“And?” Ace repeated, confused. He looked up at Whitebeard now, only to find his confusion mirrored.

“Weren’t you going to tell me something important?”

…Huh?

Hadn’t he heard Ace? “You knew Roger, right? He was your enemy, you fought him. You were there, 20 years ago, when he burned half the city to the ground! You have to hate him. And now I’m here, in your own house, with the same fire! I could do the same thing! I’m the same kind of monster he was!”

His fire was starting to break through his skin along with his words, as if it was provoking a reaction. _Look at me, fear me, be disgusted by me!_ Ace tried his best to reign it in, he didn’t want to actually burn anything, but he couldn’t stop it entirely.

Still, Whitebeard didn’t even flinch. Just regarded Ace with a thoughtful look. “I did know Roger,” he eventually started, “which makes this quite the surprise, I have to say. Your personality is nothing like his. But it truly doesn’t matter. Your family is who you choose to love, not your blood relations.”

“But the fire-“ Ace protested, even as he could feel it sizzle out. There was no way anyone just didn’t care; it was everything everyone cared about as soon as they knew about it. Hope was already worming its way into Ace’ heart, fierce and strong, but he had to keep pushing it down, couldn’t let himself believe quite yet.

“I’m not worried about your fire at all.” It was such a simple statement, and yet it made Ace’ heart stop for a moment. “It’s a dangerous ability in the wrong hands, of course. But Marco told me when he first found you, that even as you couldn’t properly control it, you used it to protect your little brother and instinctively kept it away from him. So I knew from the very beginning. Fire may be dangerous, but yours isn’t.”

Fuck, Ace couldn’t stop the hope anymore. Was this actually real? Only his brothers had ever truly accepted Ace, but they’d been kids back then, and they didn’t really get it, and Ace hadn’t had his powers then so there wasn’t anything to really be afraid of yet. “I could destroy the city,” he tried weakly, even as tears of happiness were already threatening to spill.

“So could I,” Whitebeard simply countered. “You think anything in this city is built to withstand earthquakes? All those skyscrapers would crumble like building blocks if I wanted them to. And yet, 70 years in, they’re still standing, because my family lives in them along with everyone else. Whether you’re a monster or not isn’t decided by how you were born, what matters is how you act.”

The tears were overflowing again, and Ace briefly wondered when he became such a crybaby just like Luffy, but he really didn’t care right now. “So,” Ace tried to speak, even as he was interrupting himself with sobs and hiccups, “so, would you, would you still be my father even if, even if you’d be replacing Roger of all people?” Ace tried to wipe the tears from his face, but new ones kept coming. “Would you still call me your son despite everything?”

Rather than answering immediately, Whitebeard got up from his chair, kneeling down in front of Ace to get on something resembling eye-level with him. “Of course. If you’d let me, nothing would make me prouder.”

For a moment, Ace let himself marvel in the love oozing from Whitebeard’s eyes and voice, then he threw himself forward into his arms. “Thank you,” he choked out in between the never-ending sobs, “thank you, Pops.”

Warm arms closed around him immediately.

“Welcome to the family, my son.”

There, in Pops’ gentle embrace, it felt like a weight Ace had been carrying ever since he could remember finally, finally fell off his shoulders.

* * *

It took a while for Ace to calm down after that, but Pops didn’t rush him. Just kept holding him. Even as the tears subsided, Ace didn’t feel in any hurry to let go. He’d missed out on 18 years of fatherly hugs, he had a lot to catch up on.

Only when his stomach reminded him that he still hadn’t eaten anything today, he reluctantly let go. Pops was chuckling. “Lunch should be ready soon. I think a few people are waiting for you outside, why don’t you go tell them the good news before getting something to eat?”

People were waiting for him? Ace didn’t really get it, but he nodded anyway, trying his best to get rid of any signs of crying, though he was pretty sure he didn’t entirely succeed. Food definitely sounded great right now though.

As soon as he opened the door, Deuce practically tackle-hugged him. “You moron,” he immediately scolded, “do you have any idea how worried I was? You can’t just go and run off without telling anyone!”

“Sorry,” Ace apologized, voice appropriately meek, “I promise I won’t do it again. I’m staying here for good.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. You’re not getting rid of my anymore.”

Loud cheers erupted behind Deuce, and only then did Ace realize that it hadn’t been just Deuce camping out in the entrance hall, but quite a few people. All the kids, Marco, Izou, Haruta, Vista, Jozu, Namur and even Camie, though she looked mostly confused, likely not understanding what was going on. She still cheered with everyone, though.

“Alright,” Haruta announced, “let’s go tell Thatch so we can have a party for our newest family members tonight!”

“That’s really not necessary, I already caused you guys so much trouble…”

Nobody was listening to him, though, Haruta and a few of the kids already running off towards the kitchen. Vista patted him on the back reassuringly. “Don’t worry about it, we’re always looking for an excuse to party.”

Deuce smirked at him. “And if you feel so bad about it, show it by helping to clean up afterwards.”

Ew, cleaning. His unwillingness must’ve shown on his face, because everyone erupted into laughter until Onion came back from the kitchen, telling everyone to come to lunch.

As everyone slowly started walking to the mess hall, Marco found his way next to Ace. “You told him, then?”

Ace nodded. “Yeah. Pops said it really doesn’t matter. Sorry I was so dramatic about it.” Honestly, he still felt a little guilty for not telling Marco or anyone else. A lie by omission was still a lie, right?

“I’m glad it wasn’t anything serious, then. Come on, let’s get some lunch before there’s nothing left.”

There wasn’t the slightest hint of curiosity or resentment in Marco’s voice, and Ace gladly followed him. To his first meal as an official member of the family.

* * *

Ace spent his afternoon as originally planned, babysitting the kids. Even though they were happily running around, one of them stayed at his side at all times, standing guard as they explained. They wouldn’t let him run off on his own again, they said. Ace assured them it was entirely unnecessary, but unsurprisingly, they didn’t listen. It was kind of sweet, honestly, if a little annoying.

He convinced Chimney to release her worms, too, telling her they’d be much happier in the grass and plants around the estate compared to her pocket. She was sad about it, but declared them family nonetheless, since they technically still lived with everyone. Ace wasn’t sure if that was how it worked, but she seemed happy, so whatever.

Dinner then was a huge feast, bigger and fancier than he’d ever seen. Thatch had really outdone himself. There was even a huge cake. Ace had seen replicas of those in store windows, but never a real one.

But before he could eat anything, a beer mug was pressed into his hands, and he and Camie were pushed to stand next to Pops. “Let’s all welcome our two newest members to the family! With a cheers to Ace and Camie, let the festivities begin!”

Pops’ booming voice echoed through the room, and Ace raised his mug along with everyone else, clinking it against Camie’s juice glass.

“CHEERS!”

Everyone in the room joined in, and then the buffet was opened and there was no holding Ace back. Literally everything looked delicious, and he needed to eat it all. Or as much as he could get, because of course everyone else also wanted something. For once, Ace didn’t mind sharing his food though.

As his stomach started to feel full, Ace realized he was surrounded by all the people he cared about most in his new family, despite sitting at the special table for Pops.

Aisa was the first to talk to him. “Now that you’re one of us, I promise I’ll be a great big sister. You can count on me, Ace!”

“That’s not how it works.” Ace frowned at her. “If anything, you’d be my little sister.”

“No no, she’s right,” Marco intercepted immediately, “it goes by order of adoption. You’ll be the baby of the family until Pops gets a new kid. That’s how it works here.”

Izou sighed. “You don’t have to listen to them, or see anyone here as your siblings if you don’t want to. To me, everyone here is family, but only Kiku is my sister. Nobody will be mad if you want Luffy to remain special.” He leaned in closer to Ace, dropping his voice to a murmur quiet enough that nobody else would hear. “Makes dating someone in the family way less awkward too, if you never even technically call them your sibling.” With a wink, Izou returned to his prior position, while Ace tried to keep a blush away from his face.

Marco shrugged. “Yeah, I don’t care, as long as you don’t challenge me being the oldest sibling.”

“I’m older than you, Marco,” Vista said, but he sounded too tired to really argue this. Ace got the feeling he had, many, many times, with no results to show for it.

“And yet you’re my little brother. Funny how that works.”

“The only reason that narrative exists is because Marco insists on it,” Thatch explained, “and he’s Pops’ favourite, so Pops supports him and the rest of us are powerless.”

“Thatch,” Pops cut in, “don’t spread lies. I love all of my children equally, I don’t have any favourites.”

Next to him, Ace could hear Izou sarcastically murmur “Yeah, right” into his glass. Across the table, Namur placed a hand on Camie’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Pops does love all of us equally, there’s no least favourite or anything. He just loves Marco a little bit more than the rest of us.”

“So you’re a little daddy’s boy,” Chimney yelled across the table, pointing at Marco, and whatever he tried to say in his defense, it got swallowed by the noise as Ace erupted into laughter with the rest of the table.

Thatch made Ace and Camie cut the cake soon after, and once everyone was done eating and a few of the adults started really drinking, someone turned on music and things started to get a little rowdier, like a real party.

“Ohhh, almost forgot,” Haruta suddenly said, “you two need to open up scores. Wanna do it against each other?”

Camie just looked confused. “Scores? What would we do against each other? Fight? I can’t fight, I thought I didn’t have to!”

“You don’t have to fight,” Ace reassured her, “he just wants us to compete somehow. Could be a fight, or a race, or an eating competition, or a card game, anything you can think of, really. Haruta then keeps track of your score against individual people, your overall win-loss ratio, and your track record in specific competitions. Everyone else bets on these competitions based on those scores.”

Now that he thought about it, Ace had been asked to bet on someone many, many times, but he’d never been asked to actually be a competitor. Maybe it was a family tradition only members were allowed to be a true part of? If so, Ace would do his best to win his first competition and get a winning score.

“Oh, I get it! Then let’s make funny faces at each other, first one to laugh loses!”

“Sounds good to me.” Maybe it was a little mean and unfair to accept, since Ace had played this game against Luffy many, many times, and nobody with a functioning facial structure could ever measure up to the faces Luffy could make with his rubber body, but Ace didn’t see the need to play fair as long as he stuck to the rules. She’d been the one to suggest it.

Haruta loudly announced the competition to the rest of the room, encouraging everyone to make bets. With no data available, the bets ended up split roughly 50/50. Ace was pleased to note that Marco and Aisa both bet on him, but that little traitor Chimney went for Camie. Pops didn’t participate, still trying to convince people he never played favourites.

Then the whole room went silent. The bets were placed, the competition was on. Camie looked nervous with everyone staring at her, so Ace decided to be nice and let her go first. She used a finger to push up her nose, sticking out her tongue at the same time.

Not bad, but nothing compared to what Ace was used to. He had no problem keeping his face entirely impassive. Then it was his turn. Ace pulled back his head so he had a double chin, and did his best to make the most overtly disgusted face possible. A classic that got Luffy regularly, but not one of his trump cards.

Camie burst out laughing immediately. “Hahahaha what the hell, that’s so funny! I didn’t know people could look like that!”

Had it really been _that_ funny? Ace hadn’t expected to win that easily, but he wasn’t complaining when Haruta raised his arm up like a boxing champion, declaring him the winner. Half the room erupted into cheers, and Ace threw a smug look to Chimney. Should’ve bet on him.

She did, when Thatch challenged him to arm wrestle right after, and while that was a tougher match, Ace could extend his initial winning streak to two. Thatch took it in stride, until Chimney called him a weak old man. After that, he had to be consoled by Izou in a corner. Ace heard him whine “I only just turned 32! How is that old? Kids these days don’t know any respect” while Izou patted his back, not looking overly concerned or even supportive. More exasperated.

Ace took the chance to get himself a second piece of cake, seeing how the available pieces were starting to dwindle very fast.

He got about halfway through eating it before he fell asleep, landing face first in the cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and here we are!! hope you liked my version of these very important canon scenes!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Ace will definitely stay with the Whitebeards, it's time to get his fire under control and make sure he's ready for all the trouble brewing on the horizon.  
> This is definitely the priority, not Marco constantly thinking how cute Ace is. He can always wait longer. Or can he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter wasn't as easy to write as the last few, still not sure if it's great, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Marco almost had a heart attack when Ace fell face first into his cake, but as it turned out, Ace just fell asleep easily when he was relaxed and eating. That’s what he said, at least. He didn’t seem at all concerned about it, so Marco let it slide, for now. If it inconvenienced Ace at all, they could still check if it was a medical condition like narcolepsy.

Other than that, the only bad thing that resulted from yesterday was Thatch catching a cold and being whiny about not being able to cook all day in the infirmary. But at least he got to smugly tell Izou that he clearly wasn’t an idiot, after all. Marco wasn’t so sure about that.

But to be honest, Marco wasn’t thinking about Thatch much. He was only thinking about Ace.

Right after breakfast, Ace came to him, the biggest grin on his face, and declared he was ready to start training again. “I’ve been thinking again, and I finally had a good idea so I gotta try it!”

With how confident Ace sounded, Marco couldn’t tell him no, even if he worried a little bit. Whatever Ace had talked about with Pops, the result had clearly made him very happy. Happier than Marco had ever seen him. It really suited him. And it made Marco’s heart go wild whenever Ace looked at him with that infectious smile.

But would he go back to how he’d been before if his idea didn’t work out? That would be the worst outcome for sure.

Years of practice had helped Marco keep his face and voice neutral no matter how worried he was. Ace would never know. “Alright, wanna tell me your idea or just try it out,” Marco asked as they reached the training area.

“Well, it’s kinda hard to explain,” Ace started, obviously still ready to try and put it into words, “and it might be a stupid idea, but I have a feeling it’ll work. Like, I think somewhere inside I’m always fire. Or the fire is always burning, at least? And it always wants to burn more. Especially when I’m angry but also at every other time. So what I’ve been doing so far was just letting it burn.”

Ace scratched the back of his head. “I mean, I _tried_ to find a way to let go of it only a little bit, but that didn’t work out at all. It was all or nothing.”

Yeah, that had been the problem. Ace could reign his fire back in pretty reliably, but once he let it out, it was always way too powerful and hard to control. “So you’ve found a new approach?”

“Yup!” Ace nodded excitedly. “You see, Pops said my fire’s not dangerous ‘cuz it’s mine, so I thought, what if I just rolled with it? As in, I don’t let go, I actually try to make the fire burn more! When I had the idea yesterday in bed I thought it was so perfect I almost tried it right there, but then I realized maybe it’ll just make the fire burn even more if I do that and you’d get mad if I burned down my room, so I decided to wait and do it here while you watch.”

“That was the right decision.” It certainly sounded counterintuitive to Marco to try and make the fire burn more to make it burn less. Ace understood his abilities better than anyone else, so it might work, but it didn’t sound like the kind of safe idea that would work definitely so you could try it out in your bedroom. More like a dangerous experiment that might bring a miraculous result but also might just explode in your face. “But go ahead and try it when you’re ready.”

Ace grinned and nodded, holding out his hand with his palm up. The most basic exercise they’d tried like a million times. Marco readied himself internally to intervene should an even bigger than usual flame pillar appear.

He held his breath for a second, then another one, and then Ace’ hand turned to fire.

It flickered gently, not making any signs of spreading further than a few centimetres from Ace’ hand, and Marco let out the breath he was holding.

Ace’ eyes went wide, and his mouth opened into the biggest smile. It was an expression of awe, of fascination and wonder, and success and pride and happiness. Ace looked at his burning hand like it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

Good. This was _right_. This was how it should’ve been from the start. No doubt, no fear, just discovering his newfound ability.

Ace turned his hand around, looking at it as the flames slightly changed shape but still stayed put. Then his eyes found Marco’s, expectantly. “Good job,” Marco praised, smiling as well, and it made Ace’ already impossibly wide smile even wider.

“I did it,” he whispered, almost in disbelief, “it really worked!” And then his smile turned into a grin, and before Marco could say anything or react in any way, Ace whirled around. He pulled his hand back and then threw it forward like he was punching someone, which made the fire shoot out from his fist in a straight line, destroying one of the targets on the wall. Only one, and then Ace pulled his arm back again and the fire returned to the just the form of Ace’ fist before flickering out completely.

Marco wasn’t sure if he should be proud or scold Ace for not warning him before he pulled something like that.

But Ace didn’t give him time to do either. He practically jumped at Marco, throwing his arms around him in a victory hug. Marco stiffened for a moment, surprised at the warm force making him stumble backwards, but he caught himself quickly, and let himself hug Ace back. “You saw, right?” Ace glanced up at him with sparkling eyes. “My idea worked out! I did it just fine! That means I can _help_ , instead of just being a bother!”

_Cute._ Marco could feel his chest tighten just looking at Ace being so enthusiastic. “I saw,” he confirmed, indulging Ace a little, “but I think you should make sure you can actually control your fire consistently before you get carried away. One time can always be a fluke, or luck.”

Now Ace was pouting at him, but that wasn’t any less cute. Dammit, Marco was too far gone, Ace was cute no matter what he did. “Sheesh, no need to be so reasonable, just let me be happy and praise me a little.” Ace didn’t let go, and Marco was about to teasingly ask if he should go get one of those ‘Excellent Job!’ stickers they kept around for the little kids, but then Ace spoke again, more serious this time. “Thank you, Marco.”

It only served to confuse him. “What for?” Ace had done this all on his own. Nothing Marco had done had helped.

“For sticking with me.” Ace looked away sheepishly. “I know it took me forever to make any sort of progress, but you kept trying to figure it out, too, even when I wouldn’t tell you what my fucking problem is in the first place. If I was in your place, I’d definitely have yelled at me. Or laughed at my failure. Probably both. So, thanks for not doing any of that.”

The tiniest blush was dusting Ace’ cheeks, and, predictably, Marco couldn’t help but think how adorable it was. His thoughts were really starting to sound like a broken record.

“That’s nothing special, you were obviously trying the entire time, there was no reason to get agitated or make fun of you. But you’re welcome, I guess. Now get on that second try.”

Not that Marco _wasn’t_ enjoying Ace hugging him, he was in fact probably enjoying it a little too much. If they kept this up, Marco would probably let something slip that sounded just a bit too sappy to be seen as just a friend helping out, or follow his instincts and press a kiss to the top of Ace’ head. Or go even further and wrap Ace in his wings and refuse to let go, just enjoying that warmth against his chest forever.

Ace let go a little reluctantly, but then his earlier grin was right back on his face as he set his fist on fire again. Seemed like it hadn’t been just a fluke.

* * *

They trained until lunch, and now that Ace was using his new approach, he was literally blazing through exercises. It was still not entirely perfect, he’d especially need to work on the logia parts of his elemental powers, but now it seemed like he could easily get there with just a little time.

Ace was totally ready to train away the afternoon too, but Marco reminded him they both had other things to do as well. Since Thatch wasn’t allowed near everyone’s food with how much he was sneezing, Ace had to go help cooking, while Marco had his hospital duties to tend to, including keeping Thatch there when he really didn’t want to stay. Seriously, Thatch turned into a whiny baby whenever he was sick.

At least Izou was there to distract him, which was nice and very helpful until Izou started asking Marco how the training with Ace had gone with a look that was just a little too knowing for Marco’s liking.

Izou was never patient for long until he started meddling.

But Marco knew him, and he’d perfected the art of dodging his questions over the years. This wasn’t Marco’s first crush, and it certainly wasn’t the first time Izou had tried to get him together with someone. Marco could handle it, and for now at least, Izou didn’t push too much.

The afternoon flew by, and after dinner, Haruta waved him over for a meeting in Pops’ room. Most of it was just business as usual. How their allies were doing, what new money sources they could locate and which ones had dried up for various reasons, who had caused trouble in their territory. Marco listened intently, always on the lookout for potential problems. Their family was huge, after all, and seemingly endless amounts of trouble could come from anywhere.

He noted down a few small points, but there was nothing that felt like it warranted bringing it up in front of everyone. Until the very end.

“There’s one more thing,” Haruta announced right as it looked like Jozu wanted to ask if they could leave now. “I got my hands on quite a few marine reports again, and while I assure you most of them are incredibly boring and pointless and I’m glad the marines waste so much time writing all these, one actually had interesting information.”

“Oh? And would you enlighten us to the contents?” Vista knew Haruta loved being dramatic and wouldn’t actually go on until someone asked or otherwise showed interest.

Haruta beamed at him, clearly happy he was so curious. “It’s about a mutant. They don’t really have all that much info on them, but they call them young, so it must be a child or a teenager. And whatever power they have, the marines are very sure it could bring down Kaidou along with pretty much all of his subordinates.”

Now Haruta definitely had everyone’s undivided attention. Marco couldn’t deny that a shiver ran down his spine. The marines almost never talked about bringing down any emperor. If they had plans to do that, they were kept so secret Haruta couldn’t get his hands on them. This didn’t seem like it was a full-fledged plan yet, but if they were that confident the mutant could bring down Kaidou, it was deeply worrying.

If an opponent was powerful enough to defeat Kaidou, there was no way his family could win against them without losses. If they could win at all.

“You say they don’t have much information about that mutant’s power.” Pops’ rumbling voice shook Marco out of his downward spiral of thoughts. “Does that mean they don’t actually have caught them yet?”

Haruta nodded. “Yeah. According to the report, the mutant has been sighted in North Blue two days ago, but the marines were unable to apprehend them. At least according to their own intel, Kaidou isn’t aware of the mutant’s power yet, and they want to catch them fast before Kaidou notices anything. Since the mutant is still young, the plan seems to be to send them to a re-education camp and recruit them to the marines if that shows good results.”

Hatred coiled deep in Marco’s gut, though he did his best not to show it. This was so disgusting. There was a kid out there, somewhere, probably alone and hiding in fear, and people were casually planning to turn them into a weapon to use against their own kind.

Honestly, Marco was glad Thatch wasn’t here to hear it. That was exactly what they’d tried to do to him.

Fuck, if those mutant’s powers were anything like Thatch’s, the marines getting their hands on them was a truly terrifying prospect.

But they hadn’t, not yet. And that meant they could still do something. “Then we need more information as quickly as possible,” Marco declared. “We need to find out exactly what power that mutant possesses, and figure out if Kaidou really is as clueless as the marines believe him to be. If at all possible, we should try to find them first and see for ourselves what kind of person they are and what they can and would do. This might be a danger, but it also just might be a kid who needs help.”

“That’s right,” Pops agreed. “We shouldn’t waste time, but there’s no need to panic.” He pointedly looked at Curiel, who seemed awfully stiff, until he relaxed a little. “Let’s focus on gaining more information. And stay careful. We don’t want to cause more trouble or alert anyone to that mutant’s presence if they aren’t aware yet.”

Pops’ words were final. Intel gathering was mostly Haruta and Izou’s domain, so the two of them would discuss the specifics and involve others as needed.

As everyone dispersed and left, Marco stayed behind. Pops still needed his daily check-up, and Marco had something he wanted to say to him in private. But Pops beat him to it. “Ace came to me after lunch,” he told Marco, “very excitedly telling me that his training is finally going well.”

“That’s right,” Marco confirmed, “he changed how he thinks about controlling the fire, and it’s worked wonders. Honestly, I have no idea what you two talked about yesterday, but whatever you said to him made him very happy and helped him view his powers in a more positive light. So, thank you, Pops. You helped him in a way I clearly couldn’t.” He gave Pops his most grateful smile. Seriously, Marco had spent a lot of time recently worrying about Ace, he needed to tell Pops how glad he was that he wouldn’t have to anymore.

Pops chuckled. “Oh, you’ve helped him as well. And I didn’t tell him anything special, just what every decent person would say.” His smile quickly changed to a slight frown, though. “Still, I’m not sure if I got through to him with everything.”

Marco immediately mimicked his father’s worried expression. “What do you mean?” Sure, maybe it seemed a little too easy to solve a problem that had been bothering Ace that much for at least quite a while with one singular talk, but Ace had seemed so ecstatic, Marco had figured he really had just needed to hear one specific thing.

But Pops shook his head. “It’s just a feeling. Maybe I’m entirely wrong. But since you’re training with him, perhaps try and listen to how he talks about his powers a little more closely than you usually would.”

“Sure.” Marco knew Pops’ feelings about his kids were basically never wrong, so he’d definitely pay attention to how Ace viewed his fire. “He still needs some time to train anyway. He’s made leaps in controlling the fire, but if we want him to be safe, we probably need to get him to the point where he can turn into fire on reflex, at least when he’s expecting an attack.”

“Gonna make him just as annoying as all the other logia bastards out there.”

Marco answered Pops’ devious grin with one of his own. “Exactly.”

* * *

Thankfully, Ace was still doing just fine during training the next day. It was impressive how fast he was improving, hitting moving targets and shaping his flames into all sorts of forms had been giving him a little trouble just yesterday, but over the course of a few hours, he got good at both of these tasks.

When they were both sitting down after training, and drinking some cold water, Ace turned to Marco with sparkles in his eyes. “Hey, if I keep improving like this, can I go out with you soon?”

Marco’s brain reached a screeching halt.

Silence stretched between them for a few long seconds as Marco stared at Ace, unable to comprehend what he just heard.

Ace, for his part, looked entirely clueless, until it clicked in his brain just what exactly he’d asked out of the blue. “On missions,” he screeched, flailing his arms around in panic, “I meant when can I go on missions with you! Out of the estate!” He was blushing like mad, tiny flames flickering on his ears where the heat got too much.

There was a little bit of disappointment Marco definitely felt, but this made a lot more sense than whatever he’d interpreted into it at first. He couldn’t help a small laugh, both directed at his own reaction and Ace’ over the top clarification.

But yeah, no way was he gonna address this misunderstanding in any way. Definitely not.

“What, you’re so desperate to get away from home sometimes you’ll happily jump into whatever illegal money-gathering we get up to?” Honestly, Ace was a fighter, he’d always protected his brother and himself with physical violence if necessary, and now he had a powerful mutation at his disposal, Marco had always expected him to ask if he could help protect the family somehow.

He just hadn’t expected Ace to look quite so excited about it. He had to know that not everything they did was glorious or fun, right? Just because they avoided violence whenever possible didn’t mean they could run an organization that was so illegal even existing freely was a crime for every single one of its thousands of members by being nice to everyone they met.

“It’s not about getting away from here,” Ace protested immediately. “I love it here. It’s perfect. But it can’t be easy to keep it this peaceful here. It has to cost a lot of money, and you always gotta fight the marines or whoever else is making trouble. I know my way in a street brawl, and I’ve worked as a dubiously legal debt collector before, so I know how to threaten people to choke up money. I can definitely help if you let me!”

Marco genuinely didn’t doubt that. It would definitely cause a bunch of trouble once everyone figured out the fire mutant they’d been searching for had joined Whitebeard, but that was something they’d have to face eventually anyway, might as well do it sooner rather than later. Ace just needed to be able to defend himself by then.

“Well, it’s Pops’ decision if you get to go on any missions and on which ones, not mine.” Though Pops would probably wait until Marco gave his okay, since Marco was the one actually training with Ace and could judge his progress more accurately. “But I doubt he’ll let you go before you’ve got proper logia abilities.”

“Logia?” Ace tilted his head to the side. “What the hell is a logia?”

“Well, people have been trying to divide mutations into categories for a while now, so they’ve come up with names to group certain ones together. Logia is a subcategory of elemental mutations. Fossa for example is a fire elemental too, but not a logia.”

“So… I’m a logia and not an elemental? Or both?” Ace looked thoroughly confused.

“Well, both. All logias are elementals. It’s like dogs and poodles. All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles. An elemental is anyone that can control or make an element in any way. And ‘element’ is pretty loosely defined, it could be something like fire or water, but it can be random shit like wax or candy, too. Logias only make up a tiny part of elemental mutants, you included I know like… eight, I think? Ten if you include the borderline cases. Unless I’m forgetting someone. It’s rare, and the only reason it’s its own category with a name is because logias are nearly impossible to fight against.”

Ace tilted his head to the side. “So what’s the difference? Why couldn’t you fight me?”

“Set your hand on fire for a moment.” Ace did as he was told, holding his hand out to Marco, letting it burn like he had quite a few times today. He was looking at Marco expectantly.

Without wasting any time or giving a warning, Marco reached out like he was going to grab Ace’s hand, but instead he reached right through the flames. His own blue fire protected him from any burns, but that wasn’t the point. Ace had clearly gotten it now, staring in awe at his hand that had barely lost its form as Marco’s hand passed right through it.

“Now imagine you do this with your entire body. How is anyone supposed to fight you? Punching, stabbing, shooting bullets, nothing will work. From what I’ve seen from other logias, you can even train yourself to reflexively turn your body into fire when any attack hits you. That might be better than walking around fully on fire all the time during any fight, too. Especially since it can be pretty easy to lose control of yourself if your body lacks any sort of physical form. Until you’re really used to your powers, you should always leave at least your head as is.”

“That’s fucking sick,” Ace replied, still staring at his burning hand, “I’m invincible.”

“No, you’re not.” Marco whacked him over the head, proving his point. “For one, other mutant powers can still affect you. Who knows if water could put you out? But Thatch can still take your powers, he’s usually our go-to when we have to fight logia mutants. And the marines have special anti-mutant weapons, as well. Some of their bullets can hit and injure logias. As far as I know, most soldiers won’t have them on hand since they’re difficult and expensive to manufacture, but if you go out there and announce you’re working for Pops, they’ll be aiming as many as they can specifically at you.”

Ace just rolled his eyes. “I’ll be fine.”

Would he, though? The marines would be very, very unhappy if they learned that the fire mutant they were looking for was a logia and had allied himself with an emperor. Like, _incredibly_ unhappy. No emperor had a true logia working for them. Yes, Pops had Thatch and Big Mom had Katakuri, who you could maybe argue should count as logias, but there was room to argue.

Out of the seven known definite logias in the city, four had been captured when they were very young and now worked for the marines. Crocodile unofficially still worked with the government, and so did Monet who worked for Doflamingo who worked with them, somewhat. That left only Caribou, and, well… It was remarkable that he’d remained truly independent of all the powers that governed this city, legal and criminal alike, but that was also really the only remarkable thing about Caribou.

It was clear from their actions how much the government feared logias as their enemies, just as much as they valued them as weapons in their own hands.

The marines would definitely see Ace as ‘Roger, but even worse’.

Whatever had caused him to develop his mutation so abnormally late had probably saved him from either being killed on the spot for being too potentially dangerous, or captured and brainwashed into becoming a marine himself, with no other career choice left for him. He’d been damn lucky, all things considered.

Not that Marco would tell him any of that, though. Ace already knew he was being targeted for his powers, and he hadn’t been dealing with it all that well, and even Pops still thought Ace’ relationship with his fire wasn’t as good as it could be yet. No point making it worse.

“Don’t get too cocky. Learn to actually dissolve yourself properly before you talk big.”

“I’ll have it down in no time, you’ll see! I’ll be so great you won’t have a choice but to send me on missions!”

Well, at least Marco didn’t have to worry about Ace losing motivation any time soon.

* * *

To his credit, Ace made good on his promise.

When Marco first started to shift their training to actual sparring, Ace was adept at hand-to-hand combat as expected. He was obviously a street brawler with experience. But so was Marco, and he managed to land hits on Ace frequently, even as Ace was trying to use his logia capabilities to stop that.

After the first week, Ace’ body was full of bruises, and Marco could hear him loudly complain about it after their training sessions when Deuce bandaged him up. Whiny brat. He was definitely just being overdramatic. Marco was much nicer than what Pops used to do with Marco back in the day when Marco had wanted to go fight marines with him as a kid.

After the second week, most of those bruises were faded, and while new ones replaced them, there were much fewer as Ace began to dissolve himself pretty reliably.

After the third week, Ace was free of bruises, and Marco could only get a hit in if he aimed for the head, the place Ace struggled to dissolve into fire the most. He could do it, but his powers got just a little wonky when he did, and that made him a little too hesitant to leave it to his instinct to turn his head to fire.

Still, the progress was incredible for such a short span of time. No matter how worried he was, Marco found it harder and harder to tell Pops Ace wasn’t ready yet, especially as they were sending a few people to North Blue now to look for that mutant the marines were searching for. They could use someone to pick up the slack in their own home turf.

Maybe he could let Ace go on an easy mission soon. Maybe.

Today, they were training again though. Marco was running just a little late, having been held up by a minor emergency at the hospital, and he found Ace in the training area, squatting on the floor with his back turned to the door. He was holding a piece of paper and mumbling to himself, clearly not noticing Marco.

Curious, Marco quietly got closer instead of calling out to Ace.

“Warm and gentle and strong, the perfect fit for you…”

That was as much as Marco got before he could peer over Ace’ shoulder, but in doing so, he cast a shadow over the paper, and Ace startled horribly, immediately crumpling it up and tucking it away. He turned to glare at Marco. “Do you have to sneak up on me like that?”

“It’s not my fault you’re easy to sneak up on. Terrible prerequisite for missions and also just to live here. Take it as a warning.” Marco easily ignored the dirty look Ace gave him. “So what were you reading? A poem?” He hadn’t been able to read any of it, but in the one second he got to look at the paper, it had seemed like short lines and verses rather than a prose text.

“Yeah,” Ace admitted with surprising ease. With how startled he’d been and how quickly he hid the paper from view, Marco would’ve thought he’d be more embarrassed about it. “It’s a poem about my fire! Deuce wrote it for me! Don’t you think that’s amazing? It rhymes and everything! I can’t write for shit, this feels like magic to me, I wouldn’t even know where to start…”

As Ace rambled on, clearly incredibly happy and excited, Marco tried his best to keep any hints of jealousy out of his face. “That’s nice of Deuce, to write a poem just for you.”

He must’ve done a good job, because Ace didn’t seem to pick up on it at all. “I know, right? Deuce is so cool! I’d show you so you could appreciate it too, but he doesn’t want anyone else to see. I’ve been reading it a bunch though, since it gives me a good vibe before training or going to bed.”

“Let’s capitalize on those vibes then and get to training.”

Honestly, Marco was just desperate to get away from this topic. His mind was still reeling from the information, he didn’t need Ace noticing and asking questions.

Needless to say, Marco was still distracted the entire time, not landing a single hit on Ace for the first time, but he easily blamed it on what happened at the hospital and left it at that. But once Ace was off to shower before lunch, there was no holding back his thoughts anymore.

Why the hell had Deuce written Ace a poem? That wasn’t something platonic friends usually did, right? Just write a poem for the homies to read before bed? For good vibes? Maybe standards had changed, and Marco just didn’t know about it. He’d have to go ask Thatch about it. Sure, that conversation would be embarrassing as hell, but Marco would always be safe in the knowledge that his love life was less embarrassing than Thatch’s, so it was fine.

If this wasn’t the new standard though, as his gut told him, Marco would have to start reconsidering his patient approach.

It hadn’t ever crossed his mind that anyone else would fall for Ace too, but in hindsight, that was pretty stupid. He knew first-hand just how lovable Ace was, and he’d known from the start Ace was close with others in the family too, especially Deuce.

There really was no reason why Ace shouldn’t fall for Deuce. Deuce was a very kind person, and pretty, too, plus apparently a romantic, and also way closer in age to Ace than Marco. They had a great friendship going already, always a solid foundation for a relationship. If Ace wanted to be with him, Marco wouldn’t say anything.

But as of now, Ace had said nothing of the sort, and Marco wasn’t one to just quietly give up. Maybe it had been a few years since he’d actively and seriously tried to flirt with someone, but he definitely had the edge over Deuce when it came to experience.

From now on, Marco wouldn’t hold back anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (yes I actually wrote a whole poem and you'll probably get to read it at some point during this fic but I'm even less of a poet than deuce lmao)


End file.
